Planar cavity MEMS and related structures, methods of manufacture and design structures

A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), comprising:

• forming a plurality of discrete wires on a substrate;
• forming a sacrificial cavity layer on the discrete wires;
• forming trenches in an upper surface of the sacrificial cavity layer, wherein the trenches are formed by a damascene etch process into the sacrificial cavity layer;
• filling the trenches with dielectric material;
• depositing metal on the sacrificial cavity layer and on the dielectric material to form a beam with at least one dielectric bumper extending from a bottom surface thereof;
• performing an oxide reactive ion etch (RIE) process on resist patterned wafers prior to the damascene etch process;
• and
• performing a HF clean with photoresist to hydrogen passivate the sacrificial cavity layer, prior to the forming trenches.

A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), comprising:

• forming a plurality of discrete wires on a substrate;
• forming a sacrificial cavity layer on the discrete wires;
• forming trenches in an upper surface of the sacrificial cavity layer, wherein the trenches are formed by a damascene etch process into the sacrificial cavity layer;
• filling the trenches with dielectric material;
• depositing metal on the sacrificial cavity layer and on the dielectric material to form a beam with at least one dielectric bumper extending from a bottom surface thereof;
• and
• performing a HF clean with photoresist to hydrogen passivate the sacrificial cavity layer, prior to the damascene etch process.

A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), comprising:

• forming a plurality of discrete wires on a substrate;
• forming a sacrificial cavity layer on the discrete wires;
• forming trenches in an upper surface of the sacrificial cavity layer;
• filling the trenches with dielectric material;
• and
• depositing metal on the sacrificial cavity layer and on the dielectric material to form a beam with at least one dielectric bumper extending from a bottom surface thereof,
• wherein the trenches are filled with an oxide material and then the metal to form an electrode with an oxide undersurface, and
• the metal is patterned such that the metal in the trenches is not formed with a continuous path with metal outside of the trenches.

A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), comprising:

• forming a plurality of discrete wires on a substrate;
• forming a sacrificial cavity layer on the discrete wires;
• forming trenches in an upper surface of the sacrificial cavity layer;
• filling the trenches with dielectric material;
• and
• depositing metal on the sacrificial cavity layer and on the dielectric material to form a beam with at least one dielectric bumper extending from a bottom surface thereof,
• wherein the at least one dielectric bumper is a dielectric peg deposited using a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) SiO2 film;
• and
• the dielectric peg is formed with a rounded corner by reducing an rf bias power during argon-SF6-base silicon etch process.

A method of forming at least one Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS), comprising:

• forming a wiring layer on a substrate;
• patterning the wiring layer to form a plurality of discrete wires with spaces therebetween;
• forming a sacrificial cavity layer on the plurality of discrete wires;
• planarizing the sacrificial cavity layer;
• performing a HF clean with photoresist to hydrogen passivate the planarized sacrificial cavity layer;
• etching the hydrogen passivated planarized sacrificial cavity layer to form at least one trench;
• forming an oxide material in the at least one trench;
• and
• depositing an electrode material on the oxide material and the passivated planarized sacrificial cavity layer to form a beam with a oxide material on an underside thereof.

A method in a computer-aided design system for generating a functional design model of a MEMS using a processor, the method comprising:

• generating a functional representation of a plurality of discrete wires on a substrate;
• generating a functional representation of a sacrificial cavity layer on the discrete wires;
• generating a functional representation of trenches in an upper surface of the sacrificial cavity layer;
• generating a functional representation of the trenches filled with dielectric material, wherein the dielectric material is an oxide peg that forms at least one dielectric bumper;
• generating a functional representation of chamfered corners of the oxide peg;
• and
• generating a functional representation of metal on the sacrificial cavity layer and on the dielectric material to form a beam with the at least one dielectric bumper extending from a bottom surface thereof.