Planar cavity MEMS and related structures, methods of manufacture and design structures
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsAnthony K. Stamper, John G. Twombly
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) includes patterning a wiring layer to form at least one fixed plate and forming a sacrificial material on the wiring layer. The method further includes forming an insulator layer of one or more films over the at least one fixed plate and exposed portions of an underlying substrate to prevent formation of a reaction product between the wiring layer and a sacrificial material. The method further includes forming at least one MEMS beam that is moveable over the at least one fixed plate. The method further includes venting or stripping of the sacrificial material to form at least a first cavity.
Claims19
A method in a computer-aided design system for manufacturing a MEMS, the method comprising:
- generating a functional representation of a wiring layer to form at least one fixed plate;
- generating a functional representation of an insulator layer over the at least one fixed plate and exposed portions of an underlying substrate to prevent formation of aluminum silicide during a subsequent sacrificial material deposition step;
- generating a functional representation of at least one upper MEMS beam over the at least one fixed plate;
- generating a functional representation of a dielectric peg on the at least one fixed plate;
- generating a functional representation of a dielectric bumper between the wiring layer and the at least one upper MEMS beam, wherein the wiring layer is below the dielectric bumper and the at least one upper MEMS beam is above the dielectric bumper;
- generating a functional representation of the at least one upper MEMS beam directly on top of and contacting a top surface of the dielectric bumper, the at least one upper MEMS beam extends into a lower cavity;
- generating a functional representation of an insulator material directly on top of and contacting a top surface of the at least one upper MEMS beam;
- generating a functional representation of an electrode directly on top of and contacting the top surface of the at least one upper MEMS beam;
- generating a functional representation of venting or stripping of the sacrificial material to form at least the lower cavity and an upper cavity through at least one vent hole in a lid material over the sacrificial material;
- generating a functional representation of etching a first portion of the lid material to form a first via with a first cross-section diameter;
- generating a functional representation of sealing the at least one vent hole with a metal sealing material;
- generating a functional representation of an insulator film directly on an upper surface of the metal sealing material to provide a hermetic seal;
- generating a functional representation of a polymer coating directly on the upper surface of the insulator film;
- generating a functional representation of etching a second portion of the lid material, the polymer coating, the insulator film, and the metal sealing material to form a second via through the first via with a second cross-section diameter which is smaller than the first cross-section diameter of the first via;
- and
- manufacturing the MEMS based on the generated functional representation of the wiring layer, the insulator layer, the at least one upper MEMS beam, the insulator material, the electrode, the dielectric peg, the metal sealing material, the insulator film, the polymer coating, the first via, the second via, and the venting or the stripping of the sacrificial material,
- wherein the generating a functional representation of the insulator layer over the at least one fixed plate comprises a functional representation of a conformal oxidization barrier layer comprising at least one of Al2O3and Ta2O5,
- the insulator layer has a double tapered profile,
- the upper cavity is directly connected to the lower cavity, and
- the at least one fixed plate and at least one of the upper cavity and the lower cavity includes a chamfered corner.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.