Fabrication of MEMS Cantilever: A Case Study

MEMS technology can be incorporated into a wide variety of electronic components. Sensors are the dominant application of MEMS techniques; there are widely used MEMS accelerometer, gyroscope, inclinometers, flow sensors, gas sensors, pressure sensors and magnetic field sensors. Most of the sensors are based on cantilever principle. This paper presents the case study of fabrication of a MEMS cantilever with detailed process flow. A p-type silicon on insulator of 100 orientation with thickness of 3 inches was chosen. The fabrication of the device was done using the clean room facility of class 100 in the INUP Centre in IISC Bangalore. The chemical vapour deposition (LPCVD) was done where the thickness of nitride was chosen as 250 nm. The device went through the different fabrication process steps and finally after etching, the device was released and characterization was done. The device fabrication facility was sponsored by the INUP Centre of IISC, India.