Forming a cantilever assembly for verticle and lateral movement
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsJohn Heck, Tsung-Kuan Allen Chou
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In one embodiment, the present invention includes a method for forming a sacrificial oxide layer on a base layer of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) probe, patterning the sacrificial oxide layer to provide a first trench pattern having a substantially rectangular form and a second trench pattern having a substantially rectangular portion and a lateral portion extending from the substantially rectangular portion, and depositing a conductive layer on the patterned sacrificial oxide layer to fill the first and second trench patterns to form a support structure for the MEMS probe and a cantilever portion of the MEMS probe. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
Claims17
A method comprising:
- forming a sacrificial oxide layer on a base layer of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) probe, the MEMS probe formed on a wafer including complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry;
- patterning the sacrificial oxide layer to provide a first trench pattern having a substantially rectangular form and a second trench pattern having a substantially rectangular portion and a lateral portion extending from the substantially rectangular portion;
- and
- depositing a conductive layer on the patterned sacrificial oxide layer to fill the first and second trench patterns to form a support structure for the MEMS probe and a cantilever portion of the MEMS probe, the MEMS probe to move laterally and vertically.
A method comprising:
- forming a first cantilever layer over an oxide layer, the oxide layer having a plurality of openings such that the first cantilever layer contacts a plurality of contacts of a top metal layer of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit formed above a substrate, the first cantilever layer including a torsional beam portion;
- forming a dielectric layer above the first cantilever layer and patterning the dielectric layer to form a mask to ford the torsional beam portion;
- forming a lateral actuation layer over the first cantilever layer and the patterned dielectric layer and patterning the lateral actuation layer to form a lateral actuation structure including a lateral actuation electrode, a data electrode separated from the lateral actuation electrode by a suspension beam, and a ground electrode adjacent to the data electrode, and a vertical actuation structure including a pair of fin stiffeners adapted on either side of the torsional beam portion;
- and
- forming a trace stack including a probe tip, the trace stack including a dielectric layer and a conductive layer, wherein the trace stack is suspended above the torsional beam portion.
An apparatus comprising:
- a wafer including complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry;
- a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) probe formed on the wafer, the MEMS probe including:
- a cantilever portion having a torsional beam, a probe support member extending laterally therefrom in a first direction to support a probe tip and a first electrode mating portion extending laterally from the torsional beam in a second direction, the cantilever portion to be actuated vertically;
- and
- a platform portion adjacent to the cantilever portion in the second lateral direction, the platform portion including a second electrode mating portion, the platform portion to be actuated laterally to enable lateral movement of the cantilever portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.