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Fabrication of Mechanical Microstructures Using Amorphous Silicon Films on Glass Substrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Chingwen Yeh ,
James B. Boyce ,
Jackson Ho  and
Rachel Lau
Chingwen Yeh
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
James B. Boyce
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Jackson Ho
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
Rachel Lau
Affiliation:
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
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Abstract

A new process of surface micromachining has been developed, where amorphous silicon (a-Si) and oxynitride films are used as structural and sacrificial layers on the glass substrate, respectively. Due to glass as the substrate material, the temperatures for all process steps need to be lower than 600°C. Some generic mechanical microstructures such as cantilever beams, bridges, and membranes have been fabricated. The stress changes of a-Si films with annealing temperatures are studied. It is found that the residual stress can be minimized using thermal annealing at 430°C for a few hours. In addition, some process issues such as a-Si film bubbling, the film adhesion of a-Si to the glass substrate, and stiction during structure release are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 609: Symposium A – Amorphous & Heterogeneous Silicon Thin Films – 2000 , 2000 , A21.3
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2000

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References

REFERENCES

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