&lt;title&gt;Engineering in- and out-of-plane stress in PECVD silicon nitride for CMOS-compatible surface micromachining&lt;/title&gt;

Davies, R.; McNie, Mark E.; Brunson, K.M.; Combes, David J.

doi:10.1117/12.442962

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…For the structural material, PECVD nitride is chosen for two reasons: PECVD nitride has a relatively low thermal conductivity compared to LPCVD nitride film. Also, it is easy to control stress in PECVD nitride by changing process parameters such as temperature and pressure [21,22]. To form support beams, a 500 nm thick PECVD nitride is deposited on the top of patterned polyimide and etched using a CF 4 +O 2 plasma as shown in figure 2(b).…”

Section: The Support Beams and Their Metallizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and characterization of adaptive microbolometers

Song

Talghader

2006

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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We report the first practical results on design and characterization of adaptive microbolometers with a thermally tuned responsivity. Such devices are needed to simultaneously image scenes that contain objects at ambient and extremely hot temperatures. In the high detectivity state, the microbolometers are operated similar to standard commercial devices. In the low detectivity state, portions of the support beams are brought in contact with the substrate, which thermally shorts the devices on a pixel-by-pixel basis. This is the first time this concept has been practically implemented in a microbolometer device architecture as opposed to simple cantilever beams and plates. The maximum actuation voltage is set to 17 V, and the thermal conductances, responsivities and detectivities of a typical device can be switched more than an order of magnitude between 1.

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Section: The Support Beams and Their Metallizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and characterization of adaptive microbolometers

Song

Talghader

2006

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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“…Also, it is easy to control stress in PECVD nitride by changing process parameters such as temperature and pressure. 13,14 Therefore, PECVD nitride is chosen structural material. A 500nm thick PECVD nitride is deposited on top of patterned polyimide and etched to form support beams (see one example of patterned support beams in Fig.2).…”

Section: Building the Foundation Layer And The First Sacrificial Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

Fabrication of adaptive microbolometers

Song

Talghader

2004

SPIE Proceedings

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In this paper, the fabrication of microbolometers with electronically controllable responsivity is presented. The first generation devices are built in a standard polysilicon-based micromachining process with HF etch-release and demonstrated with a responsivity that can be tuned over a factor of 50. The responsivity is controlled by applying a voltage between the microbolometer and the substrate. The resulting electrostatic force causes a small portion of the support beam to contact the substrate, which thermally shorts the device at that point. The thermal contact points are defined using curved support beams with residual-stress from a Cr/Au metallization. The lowest portion of the beams contacts the substrate, and the curvature protects the device from full "snapdown," which might induce stiction. The fabrication of the second generation microbolometers based on V O x and silicon nitride materials with a polyimide etch-release is also described. The thermal contact points for these devices are defined by beam mechanics rather than by beam curvature induced by stress, and they actuate at 17 volts. The test array has a fill-factor of 91% for a pixel period of 140µm limited by our photolithography equipment.

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