CN117800284A - Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same - Google Patents

Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same Download PDF

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CN117800284A
CN117800284A CN202410142686.1A CN202410142686A CN117800284A CN 117800284 A CN117800284 A CN 117800284A CN 202410142686 A CN202410142686 A CN 202410142686A CN 117800284 A CN117800284 A CN 117800284A
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flow sensor
substrate
manufacturing
layer
concave
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田伟
林玉哲
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Qingdao Xinsheng Micro Nano Electronic Technology Co ltd
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Qingdao Xinsheng Micro Nano Electronic Technology Co ltd
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Abstract

The invention discloses a manufacturing method of an MEMS flow sensor and the flow sensor obtained by the manufacturing method, comprising the following manufacturing steps: providing a substrate, and forming a stepped concave stage on the substrate; sequentially forming a supporting layer, a conductive layer with a preset pattern and an insulating layer on the substrate and the concave table; an insulating cavity is formed over the substrate. Wherein, the concave station and part conducting layer are located the top of thermal-insulated cavity. The flow sensor obtained by the manufacturing method of the invention not only has the advantages of small volume, quick response, high stability and the like, but also utilizes the concave table structure to selectively increase the regional thermal resistance, thereby being beneficial to reducing the heat loss of the region and improving the overall heat utilization efficiency, and the sensitivity of the flow sensor can be effectively improved on the premise of not increasing the size of the sensor or improving the power consumption of the sensor.

Description

Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the technical field of flow measurement, and particularly relates to a manufacturing method of an MEMS flow sensor and the flow sensor obtained by the manufacturing method.
Background
Flow metering is a fundamental requirement for industrial production and scientific research. Among the various flow sensor products, the thermal temperature difference type flow sensor manufactured based on the MEMS technology is widely applied due to the advantages of simple structure, small size, high precision, quick response, low power consumption and the like. The MEMS thermal temperature difference type flow sensor mainly comprises three units integrated on the same substrate: a heating element positioned at the center and two temperature sensing units symmetrically distributed at the upper and lower streams. The heating element heats the surface of the sensor through joule heat, when no gas flows, the surface temperature is normally distributed by taking the heating element as the center, and the upstream temperature sensing unit and the downstream temperature sensing unit have the same electric signal; when the gas flows, the heat transfer of the gas molecules shifts the temperature distribution of the surface, and the electric signals of the upstream temperature sensing unit and the downstream temperature sensing unit generate differences, so that the gas flow can be estimated by utilizing the differences.
Sensitivity is one of the most important indexes of the flow sensor, and in order to improve the sensitivity of the MEMS thermal temperature difference type flow sensor, three technical schemes are mainly developed: adopting a suspended film structure with smaller heat conductivity to reduce heat dissipation of the substrate; using thermoelectric materials with higher seebeck coefficients; larger areas or denser arrangements are used to increase the logarithm of the thermopile. However, with the continuous popularization and depth of application, these methods cannot meet the requirement of high sensitivity. As described above, the MEMS thermal differential flow sensor reflects the flow of gas by measuring the temperature change due to the flow of gas, wherein the main effects are heat conduction and heat convection. Therefore, the sensitivity of the flow sensor is expected to be further improved by changing the suspended membrane structure to increase the area thermal resistance and reduce the heat loss.
Disclosure of Invention
In order to solve the technical problems, the invention provides a manufacturing method of an MEMS flow sensor and the flow sensor obtained by the manufacturing method, and the sensitivity of the flow sensor is improved by changing a suspended membrane structure to increase the regional thermal resistance.
In order to achieve the above purpose, the technical scheme of the invention is as follows:
a manufacturing method of an MEMS flow sensor comprises the following steps:
s1, providing a substrate, and forming a stepped concave stage on the substrate;
s2, forming a supporting layer on the surfaces of the substrate and the concave table;
s3, forming a conductive layer with a preset pattern on the surface of the supporting layer, wherein at least part of the conductive layer is formed above the concave table;
s4, forming an insulating layer covering the conductive layer, etching a first window on the insulating layer, and exposing part of the conductive layer;
s5, forming a heat insulation cavity on the substrate, wherein the concave table is positioned above the heat insulation cavity, and manufacturing of the flow sensor is completed.
In the above scheme, in step S1, the step number of the step-shaped concave stage is two or more steps, and the specific process steps are as follows:
s1-1, forming a first sacrificial layer with a first preset window on a substrate;
s1-2, carrying out dry etching on the substrate through the first preset window on the first sacrificial layer to form a first-stage concave table, and then removing the first sacrificial layer;
s1-3, forming a second sacrificial layer with a second preset window on the substrate with the first-stage concave table; the second preset window is positioned at the first-stage concave table, and the area of the second preset window is smaller than that of the first-stage concave table;
s1-4, carrying out dry etching on the substrate through the second preset window on the second sacrificial layer, forming a second-order concave stage in the first-order concave stage, and then removing the second sacrificial layer;
s1-5, repeating the steps S1-3 and S1-4 until a concave station with a preset order is formed.
In the above scheme, in step S1, the substrate is made of silicon or germanium; the first sacrificial layer and the second sacrificial layer are made of photoresist, silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
In the above scheme, in step S2, the material of the supporting layer is a composite film layer of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, wherein the silicon oxide is formed by thermal oxidation, LPCVD or PECVD, and the silicon nitride is formed by LPCVD or PECVD.
In the above scheme, in step S3, the conductive layer is made of metal, and is formed by a combination of processes of magnetron sputtering and dry etching, or by a combination of processes of evaporation and dry etching, or by a Lift-off process.
In the above scheme, in step S3, the conductive layer is made of metal or doped polysilicon, where the metal is formed by a combination of processes of magnetron sputtering and dry etching, or by a combination of processes of evaporation and dry etching, or by a Lift-off process; the doped polysilicon is formed by a combination of LPCVD, ion implantation, high temperature annealing processes, or by a polysilicon in-situ doping process.
In the above scheme, in step S4, the insulating layer is made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a composite film layer of both, and is formed by LPCVD or PECVD process; the first window is formed by a dry etching process.
In the above scheme, in step S5, a front side process or a back side process is used to form the heat insulation cavity.
In the scheme, after the heat insulation cavity is formed, the concave table and at least part of the conductive layer are positioned above the heat insulation cavity, and the conductive layer is used as a temperature sensing element on the left side and the right side of the sensor and used for detecting temperature change caused by gas flow and converting the temperature change into an electric signal; in the central region of the sensor, the conductive layer acts as a heating element for receiving an external power signal and generating joule heat.
A MEMS flow sensor fabricated by the fabrication method described above.
Through the technical scheme, the manufacturing method of the MEMS flow sensor and the flow sensor obtained by the manufacturing method have the following beneficial effects:
1. the thermal temperature difference type flow sensor based on the MEMS technology has the advantages of small volume, quick response, high stability and the like, is simple in preparation process, is compatible with the existing mature micromachining process, and is easy for mass production.
2. Compared with the conventional MEMS flow sensor and the manufacturing process thereof, the invention selectively increases the thermal resistance by manufacturing the heating element or the temperature sensing units at the upper and lower streams of the heating element on the non-planar film structure, is beneficial to reducing the heat loss of the area, improves the overall heat utilization efficiency, and can effectively improve the sensitivity of the sensor on the premise of not increasing the size of the sensor or improving the power consumption of the sensor.
Drawings
In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIGS. 2a-2k are schematic views illustrating steps of a manufacturing method according to embodiment 1 of the present invention, wherein FIGS. 2j-2k are schematic cross-sectional views of MEMS flow sensors according to embodiment 1 of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a MEMS flow sensor as disclosed in embodiment 2 of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a MEMS flow sensor as disclosed in embodiment 3 of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a MEMS flow sensor as disclosed in embodiment 4 of the present invention.
In the figure, 10, a substrate; 11. a concave table; 12. a thermally insulated cavity; 20. a support layer; 30. a conductive layer; 40. an insulating layer; 41. a first window; 42. a second window; 51. a first preset window; 52. a second preset window; 01. a first sacrificial layer; 02. a second sacrificial layer; 1101. a first-order concave stage; 1102. a second-order concave stage.
Detailed Description
Other advantages and effects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following disclosure, which describes the embodiments of the present invention with reference to specific examples. The invention may be practiced or carried out in other embodiments that depart from the specific details, and the details of the present description may be modified or varied from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It should be noted that the following embodiments and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other without conflict.
It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present invention, the directional indication (such as up, down, left, right … …) is merely used to explain the relative positional relationship between the components, the movement situation, etc. in a specific posture, and if the specific posture is changed, the directional indication is correspondingly changed. Furthermore, the description of "first," "second," etc. in this disclosure is for descriptive purposes only and is not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature.
Referring to fig. 1, embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor, which includes the following steps:
s1, providing a substrate, and forming a stepped concave stage on the substrate;
s2, forming a supporting layer on the surfaces of the substrate and the concave table;
s3, forming a conductive layer with a preset pattern on the surface of the supporting layer, wherein at least part of the conductive layer is formed above the concave table;
s4, forming an insulating layer covering the conductive layer, etching a first window on the insulating layer, and exposing part of the conductive layer;
s5, forming a heat insulation cavity on the substrate, and positioning a concave table above the heat insulation cavity to finish manufacturing the flow sensor.
The above-described fabrication method is described in further detail below in conjunction with fig. 2a-2 k:
firstly, as shown in fig. 2a-2e, step S1 is performed to provide a substrate 10, and a stepped concave stage 11 is formed on the substrate 10;
as a preferable mode of the present embodiment, the step of forming the stepped concave stage 11 is:
s1-1, as shown in FIG. 2a, forming a first sacrificial layer 01 with a first preset window 51 on a substrate 10;
s1-2, as shown in FIG. 2b, etching the substrate 10 through a first preset window 51 on the first sacrificial layer 01 to form a first-stage recess 1101, and then removing the first sacrificial layer 01;
s1-3, as shown in FIG. 2c, forming a sacrificial layer 02 with a second preset window 52 on a substrate 10 with a first stage recess 1101; the second preset window 52 is located at the first stage concave 1101, and the area of the second preset window 52 is smaller than the area of the first stage concave 1101;
s1-4, as shown in FIG. 2d, etching the substrate 10 through a second preset window 52 on the second sacrificial layer 02 to form a second-order concave 1102, and then removing the second sacrificial layer 02;
s1-5, repeating the process until a concave table 11 with a preset order is formed. The stepped recess 11 formed in this embodiment is shown in fig. 2 e.
Specifically, the substrate 10 is a semiconductor substrate such as silicon or germanium, preferably a silicon substrate; the first sacrificial layer 01 and the second sacrificial layer 02 are made of photoresist, silicon oxide or silicon nitride, preferably photoresist; the recessed table 11 is formed by a dry etching process. In the present embodiment, the recessed stage 11 is formed on the left side of the substrate 10.
Next, as shown in fig. 2f, step S2 is performed to form a support layer 20 on the surfaces of the substrate 10 and the recess 11;
specifically, the material of the supporting layer 20 is preferably a composite film of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, wherein the silicon oxide is formed by thermal oxidation, LPCVD or PECVD process, and the silicon nitride is formed by LPCVD or PECVD process.
Then, as shown in fig. 2g-2h, step S3 is performed to form a conductive layer 30 having a predetermined pattern on the surface of the supporting layer 20, at least a portion of the conductive layer 30 being formed above the recess 11;
specifically, the material of the conductive layer 30 is preferably metal, and is formed by a combination of processes of magnetron sputtering and dry etching, or by a combination of processes of evaporation and dry etching, or by a Lift-off process.
Specifically, the material of the conductive layer 30 is preferably doped polysilicon, which is formed by a combination of LPCVD, ion implantation, and high temperature annealing processes, or by a polysilicon in-situ doping process.
It can be understood that if the material of the conductive layer 30 is doped polysilicon, metal is deposited on a portion of the surface of the conductive layer 30 to serve as an electrode, which is not described herein.
Next, as shown in fig. 2i, step S4 is performed to form an insulating layer 40 covering the conductive layer 30, and a first window 41 is etched on the insulating layer 40 to expose a portion of the conductive layer 30;
specifically, the insulating layer 40 is made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a composite film layer of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, and is formed by an LPCVD or PECVD process; the first window 41 is formed by a dry etching process.
Next, as shown in fig. 2j-2k, step S5 is performed to form a heat insulation cavity 12 on the substrate 10, thereby completing the fabrication of the flow sensor;
as a preferred solution of this embodiment, as shown in fig. 2j, a front-side process is used to form the heat-insulating cavity 12, which specifically includes the following steps: forming a second window 42 on the upper surface of the substrate 10, and then forming an insulating cavity 12 on the substrate 10 through the second window 42;
specifically, the method of forming the second window 42 is dry etching, and the etched materials include the support layer 20 and the insulating layer 40; the method of forming the insulating cavity 12 is TMAH anisotropic wet etching, KOH anisotropic wet etching, or isotropic dry etching.
As another preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 2k, the heat-insulating cavity 12 is formed by a back-side process, which comprises the following specific steps: forming a mask layer (not shown) with a preset window on the lower surface of the substrate 10, and then forming a heat insulation cavity 12 by inwards recessing the lower surface of the substrate 10;
specifically, the mask layer is made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a composite film layer of the silicon oxide and the silicon nitride; the insulating cavity 12 is formed by TMAH anisotropic wet etching, KOH anisotropic wet etching, or dry etching.
After the insulating cavity 12 is formed, the recess 11 and at least part of the conductive layer 30 are located above the insulating cavity 12. The conductive layers 30 are used as temperature sensing elements on the left side and the right side of the sensor and are used for detecting temperature change caused by gas flow and converting the temperature change into electric signals; in the central area of the sensor, the conductive layer 30 acts as a heating element for receiving an external power signal and generating joule heat.
The embodiment 1 of the invention also provides a flow sensor, which is formed by the manufacturing method as shown in fig. 2 j. The insulating cavity 12 is formed using a front side process and a portion of the conductive layer 30 on the left side of the flow sensor is formed over the recess 11.
The embodiment 1 of the invention also provides a flow sensor, which is formed by the manufacturing method as shown in fig. 2 k. The insulating cavity 12 is formed by a backside process and a portion of the conductive layer 30 on the left side of the flow sensor is formed over the recess 11.
The embodiment 2 of the present invention also provides a flow sensor, as shown in fig. 3, which is manufactured by the manufacturing method of the embodiment 1. A portion of the conductive layer 30 on the right side of the flow sensor is formed over the recess 11.
Embodiment 3 of the present invention also provides a flow sensor, as shown in fig. 4, which is manufactured by the manufacturing method of embodiment 1. The flow sensor has a portion of the conductive layer 30 formed on the top of the recess 11 on both the left and right sides.
Embodiment 4 of the present invention also provides a flow sensor, as shown in fig. 5, which is manufactured by the manufacturing method of embodiment 1. A portion of the conductive layer in the middle of the flow sensor is formed over the recess 11.
The MEMS flow sensor manufacturing method disclosed by the invention is simple in process, compatible with the existing mature micromachining process and easy for mass production. The flow sensor manufactured by the method has the advantages of small volume, quick response, high stability and the like, and the concave table structure is utilized to selectively increase the regional thermal resistance, so that the heat loss in the region is reduced, the overall heat utilization efficiency is improved, and the sensitivity of the flow sensor can be effectively improved on the premise of not increasing the size of the sensor or improving the power consumption of the sensor.
Therefore, the invention effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.
The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the present invention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (10)

1. The manufacturing method of the MEMS flow sensor is characterized by comprising the following steps of:
s1, providing a substrate, and forming a stepped concave stage on the substrate;
s2, forming a supporting layer on the surfaces of the substrate and the concave table;
s3, forming a conductive layer with a preset pattern on the surface of the supporting layer, wherein at least part of the conductive layer is formed above the concave table;
s4, forming an insulating layer covering the conductive layer, etching a first window on the insulating layer, and exposing part of the conductive layer;
s5, forming a heat insulation cavity on the substrate, wherein the concave table is positioned above the heat insulation cavity, and manufacturing of the flow sensor is completed.
2. The method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein in step S1, the step of the step-like concave stage is two or more steps, and the specific process steps are as follows:
s1-1, forming a first sacrificial layer with a first preset window on a substrate;
s1-2, carrying out dry etching on the substrate through the first preset window on the first sacrificial layer to form a first-stage concave table, and then removing the first sacrificial layer;
s1-3, forming a second sacrificial layer with a second preset window on the substrate with the first-stage concave table; the second preset window is positioned at the first-stage concave table, and the area of the second preset window is smaller than that of the first-stage concave table;
s1-4, carrying out dry etching on the substrate through the second preset window on the second sacrificial layer, forming a second-order concave stage in the first-order concave stage, and then removing the second sacrificial layer;
s1-5, repeating the steps S1-3 and S1-4 until a concave station with a preset order is formed.
3. The method of manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 2, wherein in step S1, the substrate is made of silicon or germanium; the first sacrificial layer and the second sacrificial layer are made of photoresist, silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein in step S2, the supporting layer is a composite film layer of silicon oxide and silicon nitride, wherein the silicon oxide is formed by thermal oxidation, LPCVD or PECVD, and the silicon nitride is formed by LPCVD or PECVD.
5. The method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein in step S3, the conductive layer is made of metal, and is formed by a combination of processes including magnetron sputtering and dry etching, or by a combination of processes including vapor deposition and dry etching, or by a Lift-off process.
6. The method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein in step S3, the conductive layer is made of metal or doped polysilicon, and the metal is formed by a combination of processes of magnetron sputtering and dry etching, or by a combination of processes of evaporation and dry etching, or by a Lift-off process; the doped polysilicon is formed by a combination of LPCVD, ion implantation, high temperature annealing processes, or by a polysilicon in-situ doping process.
7. The method of manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein in step S4, the insulating layer is made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride or a composite film thereof, and is formed by LPCVD or PECVD; the first window is formed by a dry etching process.
8. The method of manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein in step S5, the thermally insulating cavity is formed by a front side process or a back side process.
9. The method for manufacturing a MEMS flow sensor according to claim 1, wherein after forming the heat insulation cavity, the concave table and at least part of the conductive layer are positioned above the heat insulation cavity, and the conductive layer is used as a temperature sensing element on the left side and the right side of the sensor for detecting the temperature change caused by the gas flow and converting the temperature change into an electric signal; in the central region of the sensor, the conductive layer acts as a heating element for receiving an external power signal and generating joule heat.
10. A MEMS flow sensor made by the method of any one of claims 1-9.
CN202410142686.1A 2024-02-01 2024-02-01 Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same Pending CN117800284A (en)

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CN202410142686.1A CN117800284A (en) 2024-02-01 2024-02-01 Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202410142686.1A CN117800284A (en) 2024-02-01 2024-02-01 Manufacturing method of MEMS flow sensor and flow sensor obtained by same

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CN117800284A true CN117800284A (en) 2024-04-02

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