CMOS MEMS capacitive absolute pressure sensor

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a capacitive pressure sensor using a commercial 0.18 mu m CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) process and postprocess. The pressure sensor is capacitive and the structure is formed by an Al top electrode enclosed in a suspended SiO2 membrane, which acts as a movable electrode against a bottom or stationary Al electrode fixed on the SiO2 substrate. Both the movable and fixed electrodes form a variable parallel plate capacitor, whose capacitance varies with the applied pressure on the surface. In order to release the membranes the CMOS layers need to be applied postprocess and this mainly consists of four steps: (1) deposition and patterning of PECVD (plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition) oxide to protect CMOS pads and to open the pressure sensor top surface, (2) etching of the sacrificial layer to release the suspended membrane, (3) deposition of PECVD oxide to seal the etching holes and creating vacuum inside the gap, and finally (4) etching of the passivation oxide to open the pads and allow electrical connections. This sensor design and fabrication is suitable to obey the design rules of a CMOS foundry and since it only uses low-temperature processes, it allows monolithic integration with other types of CMOS compatible sensors and IC (integrated circuit) interface on a single chip. Experimental results showed that the pressure sensor has a highly linear sensitivity of 0.14 fF kPa(-1) in the pressure range of 0-300 kPa.