Impact-resistant micromechanical arms
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsJheng-Hong Jiang, Shing-Huang Wu, Chia-Wei Liu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A micromechanical arm is provided. The micromechanical arm includes: a bottom metal piece having a plurality of trenches extending downwardly from a top surface of the bottom metal piece; an intermediate layer on the bottom metal piece and filling at least a portion of each of the plurality of trenches; and a top metal piece on the intermediate layer. The intermediate layer is made of a material that has a stiffness smaller than the bottom metal piece and the top metal piece.
Claims20
A micromechanical arm comprising:
- a bottom metal piece having a flat bottom surface extending in a first horizontal plane, a top surface over the flat bottom surface, and a plurality of trenches, the plurality of trenches being disposed in the bottom metal piece and extending downwardly from the top surface of the bottom metal piece;
- an intermediate layer on the bottom metal piece and filling at least a portion of each of the plurality of trenches;
- and
- a top metal piece on the intermediate layer;
- and
- wherein the intermediate layer is made of a material that has a stiffness smaller than the bottom metal piece and the top metal piece.
A micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) structure comprising:
- a substrate;
- an etch stop layer over the substrate;
- and
- a micromechanical arm over the etch stop layer with a cavity between the etch stop layer and the micromechanical arm in a vertical direction, comprising:
- a bottom metal piece having a flat bottom surface extending in a first horizontal plane, a top surface over the flat bottom surface, and a plurality of trenches, the plurality of trenches being disposed in the bottom metal piece and extending downwardly from the top surface of the bottom metal piece;
- a top metal piece;
- and
- an intermediate layer sandwiched between the bottom metal piece and the top metal piece and filling at least a portion of each of the plurality of trenches, wherein the intermediate layer is made of a material that has a stiffness smaller than the bottom metal piece and the top metal piece.
A micromechanical arm comprising:
- a bottom metal piece having a flat bottom surface extending in a first horizontal plane and a top surface over the first horizontal plane, wherein a plurality of trenches are disposed in the bottom metal piece and each of the plurality of trenches extends downwardly from the top surface;
- an intermediate layer disposed conformally on the bottom metal piece and filling at least a portion of each of the plurality of trenches;
- and
- a top metal piece disposed on the intermediate layer, and wherein the intermediate layer is made of a material that has a stiffness smaller than the bottom metal piece and the top metal piece.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.