Microelectro-mechanical Systems: Technology and Applications
- PDF / 637,559 Bytes
- 7 Pages / 612 x 792 pts (letter) Page_size
- 89 Downloads / 196 Views
Microelectro-
mechanical Systems: Technology and Applications
David Bishop, Arthur Heuer, and David Williams, Guest Editors Introduction Microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, constitute a group of microdevices that are just beginning to affect many areas of science and technology. In diverse fields including the automotive industry, aeronautics, cellular communications, chemistry, acoustics, and display technologies and other photonic systems, these highly functional devices are making a big name for themselves, despite their diminutive size. Through interdisciplinary teams of physicists, chemists, materials scientists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer engineers, optical scientists, processing experts, packaging groups, and others, the field is progressing quickly, with new opportunities (and companies) appearing every day. Progress is rapid, without the traction problem normally found for a new technology (where the revenues do not justify the development costs, but without the development, the revenues cannot be achieved). In this issue of MRS Bulletin, we present a set of short articles that demonstrate the roles of these small devices in diverse technologies. There are two general types of MEMS technologies: Microscale devices, with feature size of the order of tens of micrometers, are fabricated with processing technologies and materials developed for the integratedcircuit (IC) industry; mesoscale devices, of the order of millimeters in size, are formed using electroplating techniques and materials such as metals, ceramics, and plastics. Silicon micromachines, an example of the first type, are built in the same fashion 282
as a silicon IC. Starting with a silicon wafer, materials such as polysilicon, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, and gold are deposited and patterned in a sequence of steps, thereby producing a complicated three-dimensional structure. However, unlike an IC, the device is released at the concluding processing step by etching away material surrounding the device, leaving sections free to move. These devices offer a number of advantages to systems designers. Because they are built using IC batch-processing techniques, these micromachines, although complicated, are inexpensive to produce because many can be fabricated in parallel. Also, the MEMS marketplace is experiencing the same rapid rate of product introduction that has characterized the IC industry, as exemplified by the famous “Moore’s law” growth curve. The relentless thirst for bandwith in the telecommunications industry, increasing at a rate three times faster than VLSI (very large-scale integration) performance, is a key driver of this trend. VLSI fabrication techniques also allow designers to integrate micromechanical, analog, and digital microelectronic devices on the same chip, producing multifunctional integrated systems. It may seem counterintuitive, but MEMS devices have proven to be robust and long-lived, especially those with parts that flex without microscopic wear points. Research in this area has b
Data Loading...
