US 6,320,239 B1Granted

Surface micromachined ultrasonic transducer

AssigneeSiemens Aktiengesellschaft

InventorsPeter-Christian Eccardt, Kurt Niederer, Thomas Scheiter, Martin Vossiek, Thomas Kölpin

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Abstract

A spacer layer (7) with a cavity (8) etched out therein and a diaphragm (2) arranged thereabove on the spacer layer are located on a silicon substrate (1) with a doped region (5) formed therein, whereby the doped region and the diaphragm are electrically connected via terminal contacts (4, 6) to electronic components (13) that are likewise integrated in the substrate (1). The electronic component are a component part of the operating circuit that can also be used for the drive of the diaphragm and for evaluating the diaphragm oscillations. The integration makes it possible to arrange the micromachined transducer components as array that can be electronically driven as phased array.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A semiconductor device on a substrate comprising:

doped region formed in said substrate,
a micromachined diaphragm arranged on a spacer layer spaced from said doped region, said diaphragm being electrically conductive,
a cavity that enables a maximum deflection of said diaphragm to said substrate between said doped region and said diaphragm,
terminal contacts connected to said diaphragm and to said doped region, wherein said doped region, said diaphragm said spacer layer, said cavity said electrically conductive layer, and said terminal contacts comprise an ultrasonic transducer, and
electronic components integrated on said substrate, said electronic components being connected to one another and to said terminal contacts, whereby an operating and drive circuit is formed and which can excite said diaphragm to ultrasonic oscillations.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.