Print Email Facebook Twitter Fabrication and characterization of suspended beam structures for SiO2 photonic MEMS Title Fabrication and characterization of suspended beam structures for SiO2 photonic MEMS Author Peters, T.J. Tichem, M. Faculty Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering Department Precision and Microsystems Engineering Date 2015-08-26 Abstract This paper proposes a microfabrication process for the reliable release of SiO2 beam structures. These structures are intended to be utilized in SiO2 photonic MEMS. A major fabrication challenge is the release of thick (>10 ?m) SiO2 structures with high yield. A single mask process is developed based on temporary reinforcement of the SiO2 structure. A supporting layer of Si functions as a reinforcing layer during etching and release, thereby enabling a high fabrication yield. Furthermore, the process allows to create structures of which the final Si support thickness is configurable from tens of micrometers to zero, thereby providing additional design freedom. The fabrication process is tested on a silicon wafer with a ?15 ?m thick thermal oxide layer. The obtained suspended structures are mechanically characterized. Two deformation effects can be distinguished: a curvature of the beam and a slope at the base of the beam. These effects are caused by the compressive mean stress and the gradient stress in the thermal SiO2. The curvature of the SiO2–Si beams corresponds to a concave downward profile while the SiO2 beams without supporting Si reveal a small curvature in the opposite direction (concave upward). The slope at the base is approximately ?0.5° for the SiO2 beams and between ?0.5° and 0° for the SiO2–Si beams. The acquired bending stiffness of long SiO2 beams is in the newton per meter range (e.g. 0.8 N m?1 for a cantilever measuring 1000 ?m in length and 13 ?m in width). Subject stressbeam curvaturewaveguidebending stiffnesssilicon dioxide MEMSOA-Fund TU Delft To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3421c786-34b3-40c5-81b7-d37e06e734d8 Publisher IOP Publishing ISSN 0960-1317 Source https://doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/25/10/105003 Source Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 25 (10), 2015 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2015 IOP PublishingCC-BY Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence Files PDF Peters_2015.pdf 1.68 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:3421c786-34b3-40c5-81b7-d37e06e734d8/datastream/OBJ/view