CN113252216A

CN113252216A - MEMS pressure sensor and manufacturing method thereof

Info

Publication number: CN113252216A
Application number: CN202110710324.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 马清杰; 李静
Original assignee: Suzhou Yuexin Micro Sensing Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Suzhou Yuexin Micro Sensing Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-06-25
Filing date: 2021-06-25
Publication date: 2021-08-13
Also published as: CN115326249A

Abstract

The invention discloses an MEMS pressure sensor and a manufacturing method thereof, wherein the MEMS pressure sensor comprises a supporting layer, an insulating layer, an N-type device layer and a P-type thick doping layer which are sequentially stacked along a first direction; wherein, the first direction is the direction that the supporting layer vertically points to the P-type heavily doped layer; the four strip-shaped bulges are arranged on the first plane, each strip-shaped bulge comprises a P-type heavily doped layer along a first direction, and the first plane is a plane vertical to the first direction; the plurality of electrodes are used for accessing the electric signals and outputting the electric signals by the strip-shaped bulges; each electrode and each strip-shaped bulge form a Wheatstone bridge; the supporting layer is provided with a first cavity, and a strain film layer is arranged between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge. This structure is to achieve an improvement in the sensitivity and stability of the pressure sensor and a reduction in the size of the pressure sensor.

Description

MEMS pressure sensor and manufacturing method thereof

Technical Field

The embodiment of the invention relates to the technical field of sensors, in particular to an MEMS pressure sensor and a manufacturing method thereof.

Background

The pressure sensor is widely applied to various industries such as national defense and military industry, automotive electronics, petrochemical industry, aerospace, medical appliances, consumer electronics and the like. Accounting for one third of the entire sensor market. Pressure sensors can be classified into piezoresistive type, capacitive type, piezoelectric type, surface acoustic wave type, hall effect type, and the like, according to their operation principle. Among them, the piezoresistive pressure sensor manufactured based on the MEMS technology is widely used with its high sensitivity and low cost.

In the piezoresistor of the traditional MEMS piezoresistive pressure sensor, a P-type lightly doped region in a certain region is manufactured on an N-type lightly doped device layer and is used as a piezoresistor strip, a P-type heavily doped region is manufactured at the ohmic contact position of the P-type lightly doped region, and the ohmic contact hole is formed in the P-type heavily doped region, so that the ohmic contact between a metal interconnection layer and a Wheatstone bridge is realized. The P-type lightly doped region and the P-type heavily doped region formed by the traditional method are embedded into the N-type lightly doped device layer, and the PN junction structure has lower breakdown voltage and large leakage current due to more parasitic parameters and surface defects, so that the measurement stability of the pressure sensor can cause problems in long-term use. In addition, the strip width of the piezoresistor is difficult to be made to be very small by the structure, and in order to ensure a certain resistance value of a bridge arm of the Wheatstone bridge, the bridge arm resistor can only be formed by P-type light doping, which causes the sensitivity temperature drift of the sensor to be large. Moreover, for the traditional embedded piezoresistor, when the strain film deforms under stress, the stress cannot be well concentrated on the piezoresistor, so that the sensitivity of the sensor is low. Finally, the conventional embedded PN junction structure requires at least 3 layers of photo-masks, which is costly.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention provides an MEMS pressure sensor and a manufacturing method thereof, which aim to improve the sensitivity and stability of the pressure sensor and reduce the size of the pressure sensor.

In order to achieve the above object, an embodiment of a first aspect of the present invention provides a MEMS pressure sensor, including:

the device comprises a supporting layer, an insulating layer, an N-type device layer and a P-type heavily doped layer which are sequentially stacked along a first direction; wherein the first direction is a direction in which the supporting layer vertically points to the P-type heavily doped layer;

four strip-shaped bulges arranged on a first plane, wherein each strip-shaped bulge at least comprises the P-type heavily doped layer along the first direction, and the first plane is a plane perpendicular to the first direction;

the electrodes are used for accessing the strip-shaped bulges into input electric signals and outputting the electric signals; each electrode and each strip-shaped bulge form a Wheatstone bridge;

the support layer is provided with a first cavity, and a strain film layer is arranged between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the first cavity is located on a surface of the support layer on a side away from the insulating layer, and the first cavity is an open cavity;

or the first cavity is positioned on the surface of the supporting layer adjacent to one side of the insulating layer, and the first cavity is a vacuum closed cavity.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, along the first direction, each of the strip-shaped protrusions further includes: the P-type lightly doped layer is positioned between the N-type device layer and the P-type heavily doped layer.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, each of the strip-shaped projections includes a varistor portion and two lead portions; both ends of the piezoresistor part are respectively connected with one wire part; and along the reverse direction of the first direction, the line width of the piezoresistor part is smaller than that of the lead part.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the four strip-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel, and sequentially include a first strip-shaped protrusion, a second strip-shaped protrusion, a third strip-shaped protrusion, and a fourth strip-shaped protrusion; each strip-shaped protrusion comprises a first lead part and a second lead part, the first lead part and the second lead part are symmetrically arranged, and the first lead part and the second lead part are respectively offset by a preset distance relative to a symmetry axis and are used for being connected with the voltage-sensitive resistor part.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the piezoresistor part in the first strip-shaped protrusion protrudes out of one side of the first strip-shaped protrusion, which is far away from the second strip-shaped protrusion; the piezoresistor part in the second strip-shaped bulge protrudes out of one side of the second strip-shaped bulge, which is far away from the first strip-shaped bulge; the piezoresistor part in the third strip-shaped bulge protrudes out of one side of the third strip-shaped bulge away from the fourth strip-shaped bulge; the piezoresistor part in the fourth strip-shaped protrusion protrudes out of one side of the fourth strip-shaped protrusion far away from the third strip-shaped protrusion.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the varistor portion includes a strip of varistors; the piezoresistors in each strip-shaped bulge are in one of a U-shaped shape, a V-shaped shape or a cascade shape formed by a plurality of V-shaped shapes or U-shaped shapes, and the arrangement shapes of the piezoresistors are distributed in an axisymmetric mode by taking the symmetry axis as the central axis.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the piezoresistors in each strip-shaped protrusion are the same in shape.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the varistor portion includes a plurality of strip-shaped varistors and a third wire portion for connecting the plurality of strip-shaped varistors in series; the line width of the strip piezoresistor is smaller than that of the third wire part; the strip piezoresistors are all parallel to the symmetry axis and symmetrically distributed by taking the symmetry axis as a central axis, and the third wire parts are all perpendicular to the symmetry axis.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the four strip-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel, and sequentially include a first strip-shaped protrusion, a second strip-shaped protrusion, a third strip-shaped protrusion, and a fourth strip-shaped protrusion; a plurality of the electrodes includes: a first input electrode, a second input electrode, a first output electrode, a second output electrode, a first ground electrode, and a second ground electrode;

one end of the first strip-shaped bulge is connected with the first input electrode, and the other end of the first strip-shaped bulge is connected with the first output electrode; one end of the second strip-shaped bulge is connected with the first output electrode, and the other end of the second strip-shaped bulge is connected with the first grounding electrode; one end of the third strip-shaped bulge is connected with the second input electrode, and the other end of the third strip-shaped bulge is connected with the second output electrode; one end of the fourth strip-shaped protrusion is connected with the second output electrode, and the other end of the fourth strip-shaped protrusion is connected with the second grounding electrode.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the first output electrode, the second output electrode, the first ground electrode, and the second ground electrode are all metal electrodes.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the first output electrode, the second output electrode, the first ground electrode, and the second ground electrode are disposed in the same layer as the first stripe-shaped protrusion, the second stripe-shaped protrusion, the third stripe-shaped protrusion, and the fourth stripe-shaped protrusion.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, four stripe-shaped protrusion areas, a first input electrode area, a first output electrode area, a second input electrode area, a first ground electrode area, and a second ground electrode area are arranged on the first plane, and the electrode areas are isolated from each other by using a trench.

According to an embodiment of the invention, in the reverse direction of the first direction, the bottom surface of the trench contacts at least a side surface of the N-type device layer facing away from the insulating layer.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the supporting layer is a silicon layer, the insulating layer is a silicon dioxide layer, the N-type device layer is a low-doped N-type silicon layer, the P-type heavily doped layer is a P-type heavily doped silicon layer, and the P-type lightly doped layer is a P-type lightly doped silicon layer.

In order to achieve the above object, a second aspect of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor, which is applied to the MEMS pressure sensor, and includes the following steps:

providing a substrate, wherein the substrate comprises a support layer, an insulating layer and an N-type device layer;

carrying out P-type heavy doping on the whole surface of one side, away from the insulating layer, of the N-type device layer to form a P-type heavy doping layer;

forming four strip-shaped bulges by adopting an etching process, wherein the side walls of the four strip-shaped bulges at least expose the P-type concentrated doping layer;

forming a plurality of electrodes, wherein each electrode is used for accessing and outputting an electric signal by each strip-shaped bulge; each electrode and each strip-shaped bulge form a Wheatstone bridge;

and etching the surface of one side of the supporting layer, which is far away from the insulating layer, to form a first cavity, wherein the first cavity is an open cavity, and a strain film layer is formed between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge.

In order to achieve the above object, a third embodiment of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor, which is applied to the MEMS pressure sensor, and includes the following steps:

the method comprises the following steps:

providing a substrate as a support layer;

etching the surface of one side of the supporting layer to form a first cavity;

providing an N type device layer, and forming an insulating layer on one side surface of the N type device layer;

the surface of one side of the first cavity etched on the supporting layer is in bonding connection with the surface of one side, away from the N-type device layer, of the insulating layer in a vacuum environment, so that the first cavity is a vacuum closed cavity;

thinning the N-type device layer;

and a strain film layer is formed between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge.

According to an embodiment of the invention, before the whole surface of one side surface of the N-type device layer facing away from the insulating layer is heavily doped with P-type dopant to form a heavily doped P-type dopant layer, the method further includes:

carrying out P-type light doping on the whole surface of one side, away from the insulating layer, of the N-type device layer to form a P-type light doping layer;

after the whole surface of one side of the N-type device layer, which is far away from the insulating layer, is subjected to P-type heavy doping to form a P-type heavy doping layer, the method further comprises the following steps:

and forming four strip-shaped bulges by adopting an etching process, wherein the side walls of the four strip-shaped bulges at least expose the P-type light doping layer and the P-type heavy doping layer.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, forming the plurality of electrodes includes:

and forming a plurality of electrodes by adopting an electroplating or sputtering mode.

and forming a plurality of electrodes in an etching mode, wherein the side wall of the groove between the electrodes is at least exposed to the surface of one side of the undoped N-type device layer, which faces away from the insulating layer.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, forming the plurality of electrodes and forming the four stripe-shaped protrusions are performed in one step.

According to the MEMS pressure sensor and the manufacturing method thereof provided by the embodiment of the invention, the MEMS pressure sensor comprises a supporting layer, an insulating layer, an N-type device layer and a P-type heavily doped layer which are sequentially stacked along a first direction; wherein, the first direction is the direction that the supporting layer vertically points to the P-type heavily doped layer; the four strip-shaped bulges are arranged on the first plane, each strip-shaped bulge comprises a P-type heavily doped layer along a first direction, and the first plane is a plane vertical to the first direction; the plurality of electrodes are used for accessing the electric signals and outputting the electric signals by the strip-shaped bulges; each electrode and each strip-shaped bulge form a Wheatstone bridge; the supporting layer is provided with a first cavity, and a strain film layer is arranged between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge. Therefore, by arranging the four strip-shaped bulges, when the strain film layer is stressed, the stress is maximum at the edge and the central position of the strain film layer, the stress is more concentrated on the surface of the strip-shaped bulge piezoresistor, and the sensitivity is high and the linearity is good. In addition, parasitic parameters between the heavily doped layer and the substrate are smaller, and the heavily doped layer and the substrate are closer to an ideal PN junction, so that the heavily doped layer has higher breakdown voltage and lower leakage current, and further has higher reliability and long-term stability. Because the doping concentration of the surface of the strip-shaped bulge is higher, the device can realize lower sensitivity temperature drift. The MEMS pressure sensor is simple in structure, the manufacturing process of the piezoresistor strip only needs 1 time of photomask, the process cost is low, and batch production can be realized. In addition, in the two embodiments of the invention, the embodiment in which the first cavity is an open cavity can be used for measuring relative differential pressure; embodiments in which the first chamber is a vacuum-sealed chamber may be used to measure absolute pressure.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of FIG. 1 taken along direction AA';

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the alternate embodiment of FIG. 1 taken along direction AA';

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the alternate embodiment of FIG. 1 taken along direction AA';

FIG. 5 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a schematic circuit diagram of a Wheatstone bridge in a MEMS pressure sensor according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a flow chart of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 20 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a step diagram of a method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a step diagram of a method for fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not limiting of the invention. It should be further noted that, for the convenience of description, only some of the structures related to the present invention are shown in the drawings, not all of the structures.

Fig. 1 is a top view of a MEMS pressure sensor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the MEMS pressure sensor 100 includes:

a support layer 101, an insulating layer 102, an N-type device layer 103, and a P-type heavily doped layer 104, which are sequentially stacked in a first direction; wherein, the first direction is a direction in which the support layer 101 vertically points to the P-type heavily doped layer 104;

four strip-shaped bulges which are arranged on a first plane, wherein each strip-shaped bulge at least comprises a P-type heavily doped layer 104 along a first direction, and the first plane is a plane vertical to the first direction;

a plurality of electrodes 112, each electrode 112 being used for each strip-shaped protrusion to access an input electrical signal and output an electrical signal; each electrode and each strip-shaped protrusion form a Wheatstone bridge 105;

the support layer 101 is provided with a first cavity 106, and a strained thin film layer 107 is provided between the first cavity 106 and the wheatstone bridge 105.

It should be noted that the vertical projection of the bottom surface of the first cavity 106 on the insulating layer 102 covers the vertical projection of the wheatstone bridge 105 on the insulating layer 102. Further, when the strained thin film layer 107 is deformed through the first cavity 106, the four bar-shaped protrusions in the wheatstone bridge 105 above the strained thin film layer 107 may also be deformed, and the resistance value changes due to the deformation of the four bar-shaped protrusions, and the bar-shaped protrusions at the edge of the strained thin film layer 107 and the bar-shaped protrusions at the center of the strained thin film layer 107 are stressed in opposite directions (as shown in fig. 1, if the strained thin film layer 107 is stressed in an upward direction, the bar-shaped protrusions at the center are stressed in tension, and the bar-shaped protrusions at the edge are stressed in compression, whereas the bar-shaped protrusions at the center are stressed in compression, and the bar-shaped protrusions at the edge are stressed in tension, fig. 2 only shows one example, where one point of the circle is outward from the vertical paper surface, and the number of the circle is inward from the vertical paper surface), and the polarity of the resistance change is opposite. According to the characteristics of the wheatstone bridge, the two output ports of the wheatstone bridge formed by the strip-shaped bulges have potential difference output, and the output potential difference is in direct proportion to the pressure applied to the strain film layer 107, so that the pressure applied to the strain film layer 107 is detected.

The support layer 101 may be a silicon layer, the insulating layer 102 may be a silicon dioxide layer, and the N-type device layer 103 may be a low-doped N-type silicon layer. The lightly doped element may be boron. The P-type heavily doped layer 104 may be a P-type heavily doped silicon layer, wherein the heavily doped element may be a boron element.

It will be appreciated that along the first direction (i.e., the y-direction in fig. 2), the support layer 101, the insulating layer 102, and the N-type device layer 103 collectively form a substrate, which may be rectangular, as shown in fig. 1. The four bar-shaped protrusions (the first bar-shaped protrusion 108, the second bar-shaped protrusion 109, the third bar-shaped protrusion 110, and the fourth bar-shaped protrusion 111) are arranged on a first plane, wherein the four bar-shaped protrusions have equal resistance values, and the first plane may be the upper surface of the substrate. Because the four strip-shaped bulges protrude out of the surface of the substrate, after the strain film layer 107 is stressed and deformed, the induced stress is more concentrated on the P-type heavily doped layer on the surface of the piezoresistor part of the four strip-shaped bulges, so that the sensitivity of the pressure sensor is higher, and the linearity is better.

The higher the doping concentration of the surface of each strip-shaped bulge is, the lower the sensitivity temperature coefficient of the pressure sensor is, the smaller the temperature drift is, and the higher the doping concentration can realize higher doping uniformity, so that the better consistency of devices is realized. Therefore, the four strip-shaped bulges at least comprise the P-type heavily doped layer 104, and lower sensitivity temperature coefficient and higher linearity of the sensor are realized. Thus, the P-type heavily doped layer 104 acts as a resistor in the wheatstone bridge 105, so that the sensitivity of the MEMS pressure sensor to temperature changes is relatively reduced and less affected by ambient temperature changes. The low sensitivity temperature coefficient and the high linearity enable the detection result to be more accurate, and the use environment of the pressure sensor is widened.

The PN junction formed between the P-type thick doping layer 104 and the N-type device layer 103 is a parallel plane junction, the parasitic parameter between the raised P-type thick doping layer 104 and the N-type device layer 103 is smaller, the PN junction can be regarded as an ideal PN junction, the leakage current of the PN junction is lower, the breakdown voltage is higher, the PN junction is shown on the pressure sensor, the pressure sensor has better long-term reliability and higher tolerance working temperature, and the use environment of the pressure sensor is further widened.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2, the first cavity 106 is located on a surface of the support layer 101 on a side facing away from the insulating layer 102, and the first cavity 106 is an open cavity; further, the MEMS pressure sensor of this structure can measure an open differential pressure.

Alternatively, as shown in fig. 3, the first cavity 106 is located on the surface of the support layer 101 adjacent to one side of the insulating layer 102, and in this structure, the first cavity 106 is sealed by the insulating layer 102 and the support layer 101 to form a vacuum-sealed cavity, so that the absolute pressure can be measured.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 4, in the first direction, each of the bar-shaped protrusions further includes: a P-type lightly doped layer 113, the P-type lightly doped layer 113 being located between the N-type device layer 103 and the P-type heavily doped layer 104.

It is understood that the P-type lightly doped layer 113 may be a P-type lightly doped silicon layer, wherein the lightly doped element may be boron element. On the first plane, PN junctions are formed among the P-type lightly doped layer 113, the P-type heavily doped layer 104 and the N-type device layer 103, and the PN junctions including the P-type lightly doped layer 113 have deeper junction depths and thus have higher breakdown voltages.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, each of the stripe-shaped projections includes a varistor portion 114 and two lead portions 115; both ends of the varistor portion 114 are connected to one lead portion; wherein, along the first direction reverse direction, the line width of the pressure sensitive resistor part 114 is smaller than that of the wire part 115.

It can be understood that the line width of the varistor portion 114 is much smaller than the line width of the lead portion 115, so that the resistance of the varistor portion 114 is much larger than that of the lead portion 115, and the same layer arrangement of the lead portion and the varistor portion is realized.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, four bar-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel, and sequentially include a first bar-shaped protrusion 108, a second bar-shaped protrusion 109, a third bar-shaped protrusion 110, and a fourth bar-shaped protrusion 111; each of the stripe-shaped protrusions includes a first lead portion 1151 and a second lead portion 1152, the first lead portion 1151 and the second lead portion 1152 are symmetrically disposed, and the first lead portion 1151 and the second lead portion 1152 are both offset from the axis of symmetry by a predetermined distance for connecting the varistor portion 114.

The four stripe-shaped protrusions are all symmetrical with respect to the transverse axis of the substrate, so that the resistors on both sides of the Wheatstone bridge 105 are symmetrically distributed to realize accurate detection results.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the pressure-sensitive resistor portion 114 in the first stripe-shaped protrusion 108 protrudes out from the first stripe-shaped protrusion 108 on the side far from the second stripe-shaped protrusion 109; the pressure-sensitive resistance part 114 in the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 protrudes out of one side of the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 away from the first strip-shaped protrusion 108; the pressure-sensitive resistor part 114 in the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 protrudes outwards from one side of the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 far away from the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111; the pressure-sensitive resistor portion 114 in the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 protrudes outward from the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 on the side away from the third strip-shaped protrusion 110.

It can be understood that when the strained thin film layer 107 is deformed by pressure, the surface stress of the strained thin film layer is mainly concentrated on the center and the middle of the edge of the strained thin film layer, and then the piezoresistive portions 114 in the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 and the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 are arranged at the center of fig. 5, and the piezoresistive portions 114 in the first strip-shaped protrusion 108 and the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 are arranged at the edge, so that the stress distribution is more concentrated on the piezoresistive portions 114, and the sensitivity of the pressure sensor can be improved.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 6, the varistor portion 114 includes one strip of varistor 1141; the arrangement shape of the piezoresistors 1141 in each strip-shaped protrusion is one of a U shape, a V shape or a cascade shape formed by a plurality of V shapes or U shapes, and the arrangement shapes of the piezoresistors 1141 are all distributed in an axisymmetric manner by taking the symmetric axis as the central axis. It should be noted that the arrangement shape of the piezoresistors 1141 in each strip-shaped protrusion may also be a straight line, the piezoresistors 1141 in the first strip-shaped protrusion 108 and the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 cannot be a straight line, if the piezoresistors are straight lines, the piezoresistors 1141 are in a stress direction along the symmetry axis when the strained thin film layer 107 is deformed, and if the piezoresistors are arranged perpendicular to the symmetry axis, no stress component exists in the symmetry axis direction, and no deformation signal is detected. Thus, the piezoresistors 1141 in the first strip-shaped protrusion 108 and the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 cannot be in a straight shape, and need to have a component in a direction along the symmetry axis. The stress distribution of the piezoresistors in the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 and the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 is all directional, so that the piezoresistors in the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 and the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 can be in a straight shape.

In addition, the shape of the piezoresistor 1141 in the first strip-shaped protrusion 108 and the fourth strip-shaped protrusion 111 is one of a U shape, a V shape, or a cascade shape composed of a plurality of V shapes or U shapes, and the piezoresistor 1141 in the second strip-shaped protrusion 109 and the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 is one of a straight shape, a U shape, a V shape, or a cascade shape composed of a plurality of V shapes or U shapes. The piezoresistors in the four strip-shaped protrusions can be freely matched in shape and combined in any way, as long as the resistances of the resistors on the two sides of the Wheatstone bridge 105 along the symmetry axis are respectively the same. This is merely an example in fig. 6. That is, the shape of the varistor 1141 in the first stripe-shaped protrusion 108 and the fourth stripe-shaped protrusion 111 is U-shaped, and the shape of the varistor 1141 in the second stripe-shaped protrusion 109 and the third stripe-shaped protrusion 110 is in-line shape.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 7, the piezoresistors in each stripe-shaped protrusion have the same shape.

In order to improve the detection accuracy of the pressure sensor, the resistance values of the four stripe-shaped projections may be kept the same, that is, the shape of the pressure-sensitive resistance portion of each stripe-shaped projection is set the same. This is merely an example in fig. 7. That is, the piezoresistors 1141 in each strip-shaped protrusion are all cascaded in a V shape of 2.

In other embodiments, the piezo-resistive portion 114 may also be in a wave or zigzag shape, so that the resistance of the piezo-resistor 1141 in the piezo-resistive portion 114 may be increased, and the wave or zigzag shape may further reduce the size of the pressure sensor.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 5, the varistor portion 114 includes a plurality of strip-shaped varistors and a third wire portion for connecting the plurality of strip-shaped varistors in series; the line width of the strip piezoresistor is far smaller than that of the third wire part; the strip piezoresistors are all parallel to the symmetry axis and are in axisymmetric distribution by taking the symmetry axis as a central axis, and the third wire parts are all perpendicular to the symmetry axis.

Taking two strip-type piezoresistors and a third wire portion as an example, as shown in fig. 8, the piezoresistor portion 114 includes a first strip-type piezoresistor 1142, a second strip-type piezoresistor 1143 and a third wire portion 1144, the resistances of the first strip-type piezoresistor 1142 and the second strip-type piezoresistor 1143 are much larger than the resistance of the third wire portion 1144, the third wire portion 1144 can be regarded as a wire, in addition, the lengths of the first strip-type piezoresistor 1142 and the second strip-type piezoresistor 1143 along the symmetry axis direction can be adjusted according to actual requirements, the larger the required resistance value is, the longer the set length is.

In other embodiments, a plurality of strip-shaped piezoresistors can be arranged in series through the third wire part.

Every strip piezo-resistor all is on a parallel with the symmetry axis, and third wire portion all is perpendicular to the symmetry axis, is favorable to adjusting the bellied total resistance of whole strip through length according to actual demand.

The electrodes in the wheatstone bridge 105 will be described.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 9, four bar-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel, and sequentially include a first bar-shaped protrusion 108, a second bar-shaped protrusion 109, a third bar-shaped protrusion 110, and a fourth bar-shaped protrusion 111; the plurality of electrodes 112 includes: a first input electrode 1121, a second input electrode 1122, a first output electrode 1123, a second output electrode 1124, a first ground electrode 1125, and a second ground electrode 1126;

one end of the first stripe-shaped protrusion 108 is connected to the first input electrode 1121, and the other end is connected to the first output electrode 1123; one end of the second stripe-shaped protrusion 109 is connected to the first output electrode 1123, and the other end is connected to the first ground electrode 1125; one end of the third strip-shaped protrusion 110 is connected to the second input electrode 1122, and the other end is connected to the second output electrode 1124; one end of the fourth strip-shaped projection 111 is connected to the second output electrode 1124, and the other end is connected to the second ground electrode 1126.

The first input electrode 1121 and the second input electrode 1122 have the same input electrical signal, and may be the same electrode. First ground electrode 1125 and second ground electrode 1126 may be the same electrode. As shown in fig. 10 and 11, the four bar-shaped protrusions and the respective electrodes form a wheatstone bridge. The first input electrode 1121 and the second input electrode 1122 are Vcc electrodes, the first output electrode 1123 is a Vout + electrode, the second output electrode 1124 is a Vout-electrode, and the first ground electrode 1125 and the second ground electrode 1126 are GND electrodes.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first input electrode 1121, the second input electrode 1122, the first output electrode 1123, the second output electrode 1124, the first ground electrode 1125, and the second ground electrode 1126 are all metal electrodes.

The material of the metal electrode may be Cu, Pt, Au, or the like.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first input electrode 1121, the second input electrode 1122, the first output electrode 1123, the second output electrode 1124, the first ground electrode 1125, and the second ground electrode 1126 are disposed in the same layer as the first stripe-shaped protrusion 108, the second stripe-shaped protrusion 109, the third stripe-shaped protrusion 110, and the fourth stripe-shaped protrusion 111.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 12, four stripe-shaped protrusion regions, a first input electrode 1121 region, a first output electrode 1122 region, a second output electrode 1123 region, a second input electrode 1124 region, a first ground electrode 1125 region, and a second ground electrode 1126 region, which are arranged on a first plane, are separated from each other using a trench 116. It will be appreciated that the areas enclosed by the solid lines in fig. 10 are all grooves. The P-type heavily doped layer 104 has better conductivity, so that the P-type heavily doped layer 104 can be directly used as an electrode, and the utilization rate of materials is increased.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in the reverse direction of the first direction, the bottom surface of the trench 116 contacts at least a side surface of the N-type device layer 103 facing away from the insulating layer 102 that is not P-doped.

That is, the depth of the groove 116 is at least the same as the height of each stripe-shaped protrusion. It should be noted that the depth of the trench 116 is required to be greater than the overall thickness of the doped layer. So that the respective strip-shaped protrusions can be separated.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the support layer 101 may be a silicon layer, the insulating layer 102 may be a silicon dioxide layer, the N-type device layer 103 may be a low-doped N-type silicon layer, the P-type heavily doped layer 104 may be a P-type heavily doped silicon layer, and the P-type lightly doped layer 113 may be a P-type lightly doped silicon layer. The insulating layer 102 may be disposed to electrically insulate the support layer 101. The support layer 101, the insulating layer 102, and the N-type device layer 103 may be configured as an SOI substrate.

Fig. 13 is a flowchart of a method for fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor according to an embodiment of the invention. The method is applied to the MEMS pressure sensor as before. As shown in fig. 13, the method includes the steps of:

s101, providing a substrate, wherein the substrate includes a support layer 101, an insulating layer 102, and an N-type device layer 103; the substrate may be an SOI substrate.

S102, carrying out P-type heavy doping on the whole surface of one side, away from the insulating layer 102, of the N-type device layer 103 to form a P-type heavy doping layer 104 (no photomask is needed); it should be noted that the formation of the P-type heavily doped layer 104 can be realized by diffusion doping or ion implantation and doping methods known to those skilled in the art, and the invention is not limited thereto.

The doping element of the P-type heavily doped layer 104 may be boron. The method is beneficial to reducing the sensitivity temperature coefficient of the surface of the pressure sensor, reducing the temperature drift and improving the detection precision of the pressure sensor.

S103, forming four strip-shaped bulges by adopting an etching process, wherein the side walls of the four strip-shaped bulges at least expose the P-type concentrated doping layer 104; the etching process can be dry etching or wet etching, and the four formed strip-shaped protrusions protrude out of the surface of the N-type device layer 103, so that stress is favorably concentrated and distributed on the four strip-shaped protrusions, and the sensitivity of the pressure sensor is improved. The line width of the four strip-shaped bulges can be controlled in an etching mode, so that the piezoresistors in the four strip-shaped bulges can be made very thin, the resistance value of each strip-shaped bulge is increased, the size of the pressure sensor is reduced, and the cost is reduced.

S104, forming a plurality of electrodes, wherein each electrode is used for accessing and outputting an electric signal by each strip-shaped bulge; each electrode and each strip-shaped protrusion form a Wheatstone bridge 105; the wheatstone bridge 105 may perform the conversion of force to electrical signals, thereby performing the function of a pressure sensor.

And S105, etching a surface of one side of the support layer 101, which is far away from the insulating layer 102, to form a first cavity 106, and forming a strain film layer 107 between the first cavity 106 and the Wheatstone bridge 105. The thickness of the strained thin film layer 107 is related to the size of the pressure sensor and the pressure to be measured, and if the pressure to be detected is higher, the strained thin film layer 107 may be thicker, whereas if the pressure to be detected is lower, the strained thin film layer 107 may be thinner. The depth of the first cavity 106 is etched through the support layer 101 to a maximum depth, preferably in the range of 20 microns to 800 microns. The sidewalls of the four stripe-shaped protrusions expose at least the P-type heavily doped layer 104 and can be etched through at most the N-type device layer 103. The specific numerical value is set according to actual requirements. Furthermore, under the condition of the same range, the chip area can be further reduced, the cost is reduced, or under the condition of the same chip area, a thicker strain film layer is adopted, and the linearity of the pressure sensor is improved.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the method comprises the steps of:

providing a substrate as a support layer 101;

etching a first cavity 106 on one side surface of the support layer 101;

providing an N-type monocrystalline silicon wafer as an N-type device layer 103, and forming an insulating layer 102 on one side surface of the device layer 103;

the outer surface of one side of the support layer 101, on which the first cavity 106 is etched, is bonded and connected with the surface of one side of the insulating layer 102, which is far away from the device layer 103, in a vacuum environment, so that the first cavity 106 is a vacuum sealed cavity;

thinning the device layer 103;

carrying out P-type heavy doping on the whole surface of one side of the N-type device layer 103, which is far away from the insulating layer 102, to form a P-type heavy doping layer 104;

forming four strip-shaped bulges by adopting an etching process, wherein the side walls of the four strip-shaped bulges at least expose the P-type concentrated doping layer 104;

forming a plurality of electrodes, wherein each electrode is used for accessing and outputting an electric signal by each strip-shaped bulge; each electrode and each strip-shaped protrusion form a Wheatstone bridge 105;

a strained thin film layer 107 is formed between the first cavity 106 and the wheatstone bridge 105.

This embodiment is different from the previous embodiment in that before the wheatstone bridge 105 is formed, the first cavity 106 is formed on the side surface of the support layer 101 adjacent to the insulating layer 102, after the first cavity 106 is formed, the support layer 101 is bonded to the insulating layer 102, the N-type device layer 103 is formed on the insulating layer 102, and then the wheatstone bridge 105 is formed on the N-type device layer 103, so that the structure can measure absolute pressure.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 14, before performing a P-type heavy doping process on the entire surface of the side of the N-type device layer facing away from the insulating layer to form a P-type heavy doping layer in S102, the method further includes:

s1011, performing P-type lightly doping on the entire surface of the side of the N-type device layer 103 away from the insulating layer 102 to form a P-type lightly doped layer 113 (without a photomask);

after S102 performing P-type heavy doping on the entire surface of the side of the N-type device layer 103 away from the insulating layer 102 to form a P-type heavy doping layer 104, the method further includes:

and S1031, forming four strip-shaped bulges by adopting an etching process, wherein the side walls of the four strip-shaped bulges at least expose the P-type lightly doped layer 113 and the P-type heavily doped layer 104.

The P-type lightly doped layer 113 may be a P-type lightly doped silicon layer, wherein the lightly doped element may be a boron element. Wherein, on the first plane, PN junctions are formed between the P-type lightly doped layer 113, the P-type heavily doped layer 104 and the N-type device layer 103, the PN junction including the P-type lightly doped layer 113 has a deeper junction depth, is body breakdown, and has a higher breakdown voltage so that the MEMS pressure sensor can operate at a higher temperature (e.g., in an ambient temperature of 175 degrees). In addition, the temperature drift is smaller due to the arrangement of the P-type heavily doped layer 104, so that the calibration precision of the sensor is higher, and the test calibration cost is lower.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 15, the forming of the plurality of electrodes by S104 includes:

and S1041, forming a plurality of electrodes in an electroplating or sputtering mode.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 16, the forming of the plurality of electrodes by S104 includes:

s1042, forming a plurality of electrodes by etching, wherein the sidewall of the trench between the electrodes is exposed to at least a surface of the N-type device layer 103 that is not P-doped and faces away from the insulation layer 102.

In the embodiment, the formation of the plurality of electrodes and the formation of the four strip-shaped bulges are completed in the same step, so that the process steps are saved, and the process flow is simplified. The structure of the four strip-shaped bulges is the same as that in the structural embodiment.

Specifically, fig. 17 to fig. 21 are flowcharts of a method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 17, 18, 19, 22 and 23 are flowcharts of a method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor according to another embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 24 to fig. 26 are flow charts of a method for fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor according to another embodiment of the present invention. The same steps in this embodiment as in the first two embodiments are not shown, please refer to the first two embodiments. In each of the above examples, only one photomask is used, so that a small chip area is very easy to realize, the process cost is low, and mass production can be realized.

In summary, according to the MEMS pressure sensor and the manufacturing method thereof provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the MEMS pressure sensor includes a supporting layer, an insulating layer, an N-type device layer, and a P-type heavily doped layer, which are sequentially stacked along a first direction; wherein, the first direction is the direction that the supporting layer vertically points to the P-type heavily doped layer; the four strip-shaped bulges are arranged on the first plane, each strip-shaped bulge comprises a P-type heavily doped layer along a first direction, and the first plane is a plane vertical to the first direction; the plurality of electrodes are used for accessing the electric signals and outputting the electric signals by the strip-shaped bulges; each electrode and each strip-shaped bulge form a Wheatstone bridge; the supporting layer is provided with first cavity, is provided with the thin layer of meeting an emergency between first cavity and the wheatstone bridge to, through setting up four strip archs, when making the thin layer of meeting an emergency receive pressure, to the marginal middle part and the central point on the thin layer of meeting an emergency, surface stress is the biggest, and stress concentrates on protruding strip piezo-resistor's surface more, and sensitivity is high, the linearity is good. In addition, parasitic parameters between the P-type heavily doped layer and the substrate are smaller, and the P-type heavily doped layer and the substrate are closer to an ideal PN junction, so that the breakdown voltage is higher, the leakage current is lower, in addition, the P-type lightly doped layer is introduced between the P-type heavily doped layer and the N-type device layer, the junction depth of the PN junction is deepened, the breakdown voltage is further improved, and the high reliability and the long-term stability are further possessed. Because the doping concentration of the surface of the strip-shaped bulge is higher, the device can realize lower sensitivity temperature drift. The MEMS pressure sensor is simple in structure, the manufacturing process of the piezoresistor strip only needs 1 time of photomask, the process cost is low, and batch production can be realized.

It is to be noted that the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles employed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various obvious changes, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, although the present invention has been described in greater detail by the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may include other equivalent embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is determined by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A MEMS pressure sensor, comprising:

2. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 1, wherein the first cavity is located on a surface of the support layer on a side facing away from the insulating layer, the first cavity being an open cavity;

or the first cavity is positioned on the surface of the supporting layer adjacent to one side of the insulating layer, and the first cavity is a vacuum sealing cavity.

3. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 1, wherein, in the first direction, each of the bar-shaped protrusions further comprises: the P-type lightly doped layer is positioned between the N-type device layer and the P-type heavily doped layer.

4. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 1 or 3, wherein each of the strip-shaped protrusions includes a piezoresistive portion and two lead portions; both ends of the piezoresistor part are respectively connected with one wire part; wherein the line width of the piezoresistor part is smaller than that of the wire part.

5. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 4, wherein the four bar-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel and sequentially comprise a first bar-shaped protrusion, a second bar-shaped protrusion, a third bar-shaped protrusion and a fourth bar-shaped protrusion; each strip-shaped protrusion comprises a first lead part and a second lead part, the first lead part and the second lead part are symmetrically arranged, and the first lead part and the second lead part are respectively offset by a preset distance relative to a symmetry axis and are used for being connected with the voltage-sensitive resistor part.

6. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 5, wherein the piezoresistor portion of the first stripe-shaped protrusion protrudes beyond a side of the first stripe-shaped protrusion away from the second stripe-shaped protrusion; the piezoresistor part in the second strip-shaped bulge protrudes out of one side of the second strip-shaped bulge, which is far away from the first strip-shaped bulge; the piezoresistor part in the third strip-shaped bulge protrudes out of one side of the third strip-shaped bulge away from the fourth strip-shaped bulge; the piezoresistor part in the fourth strip-shaped protrusion protrudes out of one side of the fourth strip-shaped protrusion far away from the third strip-shaped protrusion.

7. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 6, wherein the piezo-resistive portion comprises a strip of piezo-resistors; the arrangement shape of the piezoresistors in each strip-shaped bulge is one of a U shape, a V shape or a cascade shape formed by a plurality of V shapes or U shapes, and the arrangement shapes of the piezoresistors are all distributed in an axisymmetric manner by taking the symmetry axis as a central axis.

8. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 7, wherein the piezoresistors in each of the bar-shaped protrusions are all the same shape.

9. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 6, wherein the piezo-resistive portion includes a plurality of strip-shaped piezo-resistors and a third wire portion for connecting the plurality of strip-shaped piezo-resistors in series; the line width of the strip-shaped piezoresistor is far smaller than that of the third wire part; the strip piezoresistors are all parallel to the symmetry axis and are in axisymmetric distribution by taking the symmetry axis as a central axis, and the third wire parts are all perpendicular to the symmetry axis.

10. The MEMS pressure sensor according to claim 1 or 3, wherein four of the bar-shaped protrusions are arranged in parallel, and include a first bar-shaped protrusion, a second bar-shaped protrusion, a third bar-shaped protrusion, and a fourth bar-shaped protrusion in this order; a plurality of the electrodes includes: a first input electrode, a second input electrode, a first output electrode, a second output electrode, a first ground electrode, and a second ground electrode;

11. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 10, wherein the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the first output electrode, the second output electrode, the first ground electrode, and the second ground electrode are all metal electrodes.

12. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 10, wherein the first input electrode, the second input electrode, the first output electrode, the second output electrode, the first ground electrode, and the second ground electrode are all disposed in the same layer as the first stripe-shaped protrusion, the second stripe-shaped protrusion, the third stripe-shaped protrusion, and the fourth stripe-shaped protrusion.

13. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 12, wherein four stripe-shaped raised areas, a first input electrode area, a first output electrode area, a second input electrode area, a first ground electrode area, and a second ground electrode area are arranged on the first plane, and the electrode areas are separated from each other by a trench.

14. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 13, wherein in the reverse direction of the first direction, a bottom surface of the trench contacts at least a side surface of the N-type device layer facing away from the insulating layer.

15. The MEMS pressure sensor of claim 3, wherein the support layer is a silicon layer, the insulating layer is a silicon dioxide layer, the N-type device layer is a low-doped N-type silicon layer, the P-type heavily doped layer is a P-type heavily doped silicon layer, and the P-type lightly doped layer is a P-type lightly doped silicon layer.

16. A method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor, applied to the MEMS pressure sensor according to any one of claims 1 to 15, comprising the steps of:

and etching the surface of one side of the supporting layer, which is far away from the insulating layer, to form a first cavity, so that the first cavity is an open cavity, and a strain film layer is formed between the first cavity and the Wheatstone bridge.

17. A method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor, applied to the MEMS pressure sensor according to any one of claims 1 to 15, comprising the steps of:

providing a substrate as a support layer;

etching the surface of one side of the supporting layer to form a first cavity;

thinning the N-type device layer;

18. The method for manufacturing a MEMS pressure sensor according to claim 16 or 17, wherein before the step of forming the P-type heavily doped layer by heavily doping the entire surface of the side of the N-type device layer facing away from the insulating layer, the method further comprises:

19. The method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor according to claim 16 or 17, wherein forming a plurality of electrodes comprises:

20. The method of fabricating a MEMS pressure sensor according to claim 16 or 17, wherein forming a plurality of electrodes comprises:

21. The method of making a MEMS pressure sensor of claim 20, wherein the forming of the plurality of electrodes and the forming of the four bar-shaped protrusions are done in one step.