High aspect-ratio combined poly and single-crystal silicon (HARPSS) MEMS technology

This paper presents a single-wafer high aspect-ratio micromachining technology capable of simultaneously producing tens to hundreds of micrometers thick electrically isolated poly and single-crystal silicon microstructures. High aspect-ratio polysilicon structures are created by refilling hundreds of micrometers deep trenches with polysilicon deposited over a sacrificial oxide layer. Thick single-crystal silicon structures are released from the substrate through the front side of the wafer by means of a combined directional and isotropic silicon dry etch and are protected on the sides by refilled trenches. This process is capable of producing electrically isolated polysilicon and silicon electrodes as tall as the main body structure with various size capacitive air gaps ranging from submicrometer to tens of micrometers. Using bent-beam strain sensors, residual stress in 80-mu m-thick 4-mu m-wide trench-refilled vertical polysilicon beams fabricated in this technology has been measured to be virtually zero, 300-mu m-long 80-mu m-thick polysilicon clamped-clamped beam micromechanical resonators have shown quality factors as high as 85 000 in vacuum. The all-silicon feature of this technology improves long-term stability and temperature sensitivity, while fabrication of large-area vertical pickoff electrodes with submicrometer gap spacing will increase the sensitivity of microelectromechanical devices by orders of magnitude.