CN117804652A - In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor - Google Patents

In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor Download PDF

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Publication number
CN117804652A
CN117804652A CN202311865237.1A CN202311865237A CN117804652A CN 117804652 A CN117804652 A CN 117804652A CN 202311865237 A CN202311865237 A CN 202311865237A CN 117804652 A CN117804652 A CN 117804652A
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stress
measuring device
situ stress
situ
silicon
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CN202311865237.1A
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王秋
刘骅锋
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Huazhong University of Science and Technology
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Huazhong University of Science and Technology
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Abstract

The invention discloses an in-situ stress measuring device for an MEMS sensor, and belongs to the field of processing and manufacturing of microelectronic devices. When the MEMS sensor is subjected to external stress change, the stress reaches the flexible torsion beam through the stress input end, the lever beam amplified by the lever enters the flexible folding beam area, and the metal strain wires on the folding beam feel the stress change to generate resistance value change. The invention not only can realize high-precision in-situ stress measurement of the MEMS sensor, but also adopts the technology compatible with the MEMS sensor for preparation, and simultaneously processes and integrates on a chip, so that the manufacturing difficulty of the original device is not increased.

Description

In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor
Technical Field
The invention belongs to the field of processing and manufacturing of microelectronic devices, and particularly relates to an in-situ stress measuring device for an MEMS sensor.
Background
Microelectromechanical systems (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System, MEMS) originate from integrated circuit (Integrated Circuit, IC) technology. Compared with the traditional device, the MEMS device has the advantages of small size, easiness in realizing single-chip integration with a circuit, easiness in mass production, low cost and the like, and is widely applied to the fields of consumer electronics, ink-jet printers, biomedical treatment and the like.
As an important part in MEMS devices, the mechanical nature of MEMS devices is reflected by the micromechanical structure capable of mechanical movement, and the processing stress generated in the production process of the structure, such as the stress generated in the process of film structure deposition, deep silicon etching of the structure, the stress generated in the process of thermal mismatch between materials during packaging and the like, and the change of the stress along with the external environment such as temperature, vibration and time, even the stress generated in the working process of the stress transmitted to the MEMS sensor by the deformation of a mechanical shell structure, and the like. If the stress and the stress gradient are too large, the performance of the MEMS device can be influenced, the surface of the device can be seriously cracked or warped, and the device can be invalid, so that the stress and the stress gradient change in the production process and the working process of the device are required to be monitored.
Because of the different device sizes and manufacturing methods, the mechanical properties of the thin film materials in MEMS are different from those of other materials, and the measurement of the thin film material sample is more difficult than the detection of the macroscopic sample. In the micromachining process, the same thin film material with different growth process lengths may have different mechanical properties, and the micromachining process environments such as temperature, irradiation, gas and the like may have different conditions, so that the properties of the formed thin film material may also be different. In some cases, the mechanical properties of the film materials from the same processing technology, the same batch and the same equipment are different from each other when the film materials are observed in the same physical environment. It is therefore desirable to monitor the characteristics of each batch of MEMS thin film material during the process flow using an in-line test architecture and in-line test method. In addition, when the MEMS device performs deep silicon etching on the structure, the original crystal structure is changed, so that the structural stress distribution is changed, the stress generated in the specific process is monitored on line, the process is required to be compatible with the monitored process, the test structure is simple in geometry, the occupied area is small, and the measuring method is simple and direct.
Research shows that stress generated by thermal mismatch between materials during packaging can directly cause warpage and deformation of a chip, thereby affecting the performance of the MEMS device. For other sensors, including but not limited to inertial sensors, such as chemical sensors, actuators, integrated circuits, etc., structural geometric deformations and equivalent stiffness changes due to package stress can change the frequency and quality factor of the device, causing drift in the sensor output signals such as scale factors and zero offset, etc. When the stress on the device is excessive, it can cause the sensor to crack, delaminate, or even fail at the interface area, thereby breaking the sensor's interconnections, causing failure or causing long-term reliability problems. Control and reduction of package stress, stress monitoring is of great importance for improving reliability and long-term stability of stress sensitive sensors.
At present, MEMS in China is actively developed, the requirement on high-precision sensors is also more and more strong, an on-line in-situ stress test method for mechanical parameters of MEMS devices is established, and the performance of the devices such as reliability, uniformity, long-term stability and the like is ensured, so that the method has very important significance.
In 1985, guckel et al proposed that the micro-bridge structure was the earliest method for measuring residual stress by using the micro-structure, and the working principle is that buckling phenomenon occurs when the length of the beam is greater than the critical buckling length after the fixed support beams at both ends are subjected to a uniform compressive stress. By using beams with different lengths, the compressive stress value is obtained by observing the change of the measured length through an optical microscope or an interferometer, and the defect is that the measurement error is larger; in 1992, guckel et al proposed a new micro-ring structure suitable for measuring tensile stress, where the two ends of the ring are fixed, and when the ring is under tensile stress, the ring becomes elliptical, so that the middle beam generates buckling, and residual stress can be deduced based on the buckling of different ring beams, which has the disadvantage that after the structure is changed, the measured results are different; the Goosen et al in 1993 proposed a micro-pointer structure residual stress sensor, which designed a fixed rod with equal length at both ends, and offset exists between the two rods, when the fixed rod is deformed under the influence of residual stress, the rotating rod rotates, the deformation is amplified, the amplified input is detected by a pointer and a scale fixed on a plate by an optical microscope, and the measurement is used as a strain value, which has the disadvantage that the detection by the optical microscope is not accurate; chu et al in 2002 designed a differential capacitive residual stress sensor that converts residual stress into an electrical signal for output. The method has the advantages that the capacitance value is measured by the method, a larger measuring area is needed, however, the film is difficult to manufacture and provides a thicker structure, so that the measurement is difficult, the capacitance value is matched with a capacitance measuring circuit, and the manufacturing cost is high. In 2010, wang Hai et al propose a residual stress sensor based on a microprobe, which uses a voltage or current signal as an output quantity, and can measure the residual stress of a film in real time without an optical microscope or an interferometer or other additional measuring instrument, but is only suitable for measurement after device encapsulation. The teaching subject group of university of eastern and south China Zhou Zaifa in 2017 designs a residual stress test structure, the principle is similar to that of a micro pointer structure, and the process is complex by adopting an electrical method for measurement; 2023 university of electronics discloses a uniaxially sensitive integrated stress sensor, which is realized by preparing a wheatstone bridge on a (100) crystal face of an SOI wafer, and measuring the magnitude and direction of unidirectional stress by simply calibrating the relationship between stress and output voltage.
Compared with the existing stress test method, the stress sensor manufactured based on the MEMS technology can realize in-situ measurement of the microstructure stress of the MEMS device, is compatible in technology and does not need additional technology processing treatment; the test structure is simple in geometry, the measurement method is simple and direct, and special environments are not needed; the occupied area is small, and the wafer can be arranged at any position. At present, widely studied in-situ stress sensors based on MEMS are in a preliminary principle verification stage, and no in-situ stress measurement sensor prepared by using an MEMS process is reported in literature.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the defects of the prior art, the invention aims to provide an in-situ stress measuring device for an MEMS sensor, and aims to solve the problems that the measuring precision of the existing stress monitoring structure is limited and only qualitative measurement can be carried out, and nondestructive detection can not realize on-line real-time measurement by being integrated with an MEMS inertial sensor chip.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides an in-situ stress measuring device for a MEMS sensor, comprising: silicon-based structures and metal pads;
the silicon-based structure is positioned on the bottom surface, and a stress input end, a flexible torsion beam, a lever beam, a flexible folding beam and a supporting contact are etched on the silicon-based structure; wherein,
the stress input end is used for transmitting stress to the flexible torsion beam after external stress changes;
the flexible torsion beam is used for deforming under the action of stress and entering the lever beam through the supporting contact;
the lever beam is used for entering the flexible folding beam after the stress is amplified by the lever amplification principle;
the flexible folding beam is deposited with metal strain wires for sensing stress change and generating resistance value change;
the metal bonding pad is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure and is used for electrically connecting metal strain wires and providing an interface for the outside.
Preferably, the metal strain wire is of a single-layer film structure or a multi-layer film structure, and the type of the film material is an insulating material and/or a metal material.
Preferably, the resistance value of the metal material varies linearly with temperature.
Preferably, the metal material is gold or platinum.
Preferably, the silicon-based structure is an SOI wafer, a monocrystalline silicon wafer, or other type of silicon wafer.
Preferably, the in-situ stress measuring device further comprises: the temperature compensation wire is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure and is used for generating resistance value change when stress change is caused by the temperature change of the working environment of the MEMS sensor, and the resistance value change is sent to a subsequent circuit or a processing module so as to remove resistance temperature effect.
Preferably, the metal pads are also used to electrically connect the metal strain wires and the temperature compensation wires into a wheatstone bridge circuit to remove resistive temperature effects.
Preferably, the in-situ stress measuring device is of axisymmetric structure.
Preferably, the measurement range of the in-situ stress measurement device is 100Pa-500MPa, and the measurement accuracy is 0.1Pa-1Pa.
Preferably, the in-situ stress measurement device is integrally deployed to the MEMS sensor in a single or array.
The invention can carry out online real-time high-precision in-situ stress measurement in any direction and any position on the MEMS sensor or the whole wafer through the array design and different combination forms of the MEMS in-situ stress measurement sensor.
In general, the above technical solutions conceived by the present invention have the following beneficial effects compared with the prior art:
the invention discloses an in-situ stress measuring device for an MEMS sensor, when external stress changes, stress reaches a flexible torsion beam through a stress input end, a lever beam amplified by a lever enters a flexible folding beam area of a stress sensitive structure, and a metal strain wire on the folding beam senses the stress changes to generate resistance value changes. The invention not only can realize high-precision in-situ stress measurement of the MEMS sensor, but also adopts the technology compatible with the MEMS sensor for preparation, and simultaneously processes and integrates on a chip, so that the manufacturing difficulty of the original device is not increased.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an in-situ stress measurement device for a MEMS sensor according to the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an in-situ stress measurement device and an MEMS inertial sensor integrated according to the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an in-situ stress measurement device for a MEMS sensor according to the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an SOI process of an in-situ stress measuring device according to the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of monocrystalline silicon processing of an in-situ stress measuring device provided by the invention.
The same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like elements or structures, wherein:
1 is a stress input end, 2 is a lever beam, 3 is a flexible torsion beam, 4 is a supporting anchor point, 5 is a flexible folding beam, 6 is a temperature compensation wire, 7 is a metal bonding pad, 8 is a silicon-based structure, 9 is a metal strain wire, 10 is an SOI sheet silicon device layer, 11 is an SOI sheet oxygen burying layer, 12 is an SOI sheet substrate layer, 13 is photoresist, 14 is a first metal film, 15 is an insulating layer material, 16 is a second metal film, 17 is monocrystalline silicon, 18 is a metal layer material, 19 is an MEMS inertial sensor, and 20 is an in-situ stress measuring device.
Detailed Description
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the drawings and examples, in order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides an in-situ stress measuring device for a MEMS sensor, comprising: a silicon-based structure 8 and a metal pad 7; the silicon-based structure 8 is positioned on the bottom surface, and is etched with a stress input end 1, a flexible torsion beam 3, a lever beam 2, a flexible folding beam 5 and a supporting contact 4; the stress input end 1 is used for transmitting stress to the flexible torsion beam 3 after external stress changes; the flexible torsion beam 3 is used for deforming under the action of stress and entering the lever beam 2 through the supporting contact 4; the lever beam 2 is used for entering the flexible folding beam 5 after the stress is amplified by the lever amplification principle; the flexible folding beam 5 is deposited with a metal strain wire 9 for sensing stress change and generating resistance value change; the metal bonding pad 7 is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure 8 and is used for electrically connecting the metal strain wires 9 and providing an interface to the outside.
The flexible torsion beam and the lever beam together form an amplifying lever, and the lever beam is larger than the flexible torsion Liang Cu, and both can be prepared by adopting a wet etching process or a dry etching process.
Preferably, the metal strain wire is of a single-layer film structure or a multi-layer film structure, and the type of the film material is an insulating material and/or a metal material. Which may be deposited by physical vapor deposition.
Preferably, the resistance value of the metal material varies linearly with temperature.
Preferably, the metal material is gold or platinum.
Preferably, the Silicon-based structure is a SOI (Silicon-On-Insulator) wafer, a monocrystalline Silicon wafer, or other type of Silicon wafer.
Preferably, the stress input end is provided with a plurality of stress sensors through a layout, and can be sensitive to stress in all directions in a plane.
Preferably, the in-situ stress measuring device further comprises: the temperature compensation wire 6 is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure 8 and is used for generating resistance value change when the stress change is caused by the temperature change of the working environment of the MEMS sensor, and the resistance value change is sent to a subsequent circuit or a processing module so as to remove resistance temperature effect. It can be made by adopting a metal coating process.
Preferably, the metal pads are also used to electrically connect the metal strain wire 9 and the temperature compensation wire 6 into a wheatstone bridge circuit, thereby removing the resistive temperature effect.
The temperature compensation wire, the metal strain wire and the metal bonding pad are deposited at different positions on the surface of the silicon-based structure, so that corresponding functions are realized. The white areas correspond to the suspended areas, and the gray areas are areas where structures exist.
Preferably, the in-situ stress measuring device is of axisymmetric structure.
Preferably, the measurement range of the in-situ stress measurement device is 100Pa-500MPa, and the measurement accuracy is 0.1Pa-1Pa.
Measurement data of the in-situ stress measurement device can reveal the stress structure distribution and stress transmission mechanism of the MEMS sensor.
The in-situ stress measuring device can be distributed into different arrays through a layout to carry out multi-azimuth and directional measurement.
The in-situ stress measuring device can be distributed at any position and any direction of wafers of 4, 6, 8, 12 inches and the like through a layout.
The in-situ stress measuring device is required to be calibrated before use.
Preferably, as shown in FIG. 2, the in situ stress measurement device is integrally deployed on the MEMS sensor in a single or array.
The in-situ stress measuring device 20 is manufactured by a process compatible with the MEMS sensor, and is processed at the same time, so that on-chip integration is realized. The MEMS sensor includes, but is not limited to, an inertial sensor 19, but may be any other physical quantity sensor such as a chemical quantity sensor, an actuator, an integrated circuit, etc.
As shown in fig. 3, the in-situ stress measuring device for the MEMS sensor provided by the invention has the following working principle: when the device receives external stress, the stress reaches the thin beam through the stress input end, the thin beam deforms, the deformation enters the thick beam through the lever, the thick beam amplified through the lever enters a flexible folding beam area of the stress sensitive structure, and metal strain wires on the folding beam feel stress changes to generate resistance value changes. And more optimally, the metal strain wire and the temperature compensation wire are connected into a Wheatstone bridge circuit through the bonding pad lead, and the resistance temperature effect is removed by adopting the bridge circuit, so that the resistance change corresponding to the strain can be obtained, and the in-situ high-precision measurement of the stress of the silicon-based structure is realized.
As shown in fig. 4, the present invention provides a processing method of the in-situ stress measurement device, which adopts a multi-layer thin film lamination and an SOI wafer to perform deep silicon etching preparation, and specifically includes:
(1) Organic cleaning (acetone, isopropanol, ethanol, etc.) and oxygen plasma cleaning are completed on the SOI silicon wafer device layer 10;
(2) Performing spin coating 13 on the surface of the device;
(3) Exposing and developing the photoresist to form a mask;
(4) Depositing a first metal film 14 on the surface of the silicon wafer;
(5) Removing photoresist, organic cleaning, oxygen plasma cleaning and the like from the masked sample;
(6) Depositing an insulating layer material 15 on the SOI wafer device layer;
(7) Window etching is carried out on the insulating layer material 15;
(8) Repeating step (2);
(9) Repeating step (3);
(10) Depositing a second metal film 16 on the surface of the silicon wafer;
(11) Repeating the steps (2) - (3), and adopting RIE dry etching to etch the insulating layer to the SOI wafer buried oxide layer 11;
(12) Repeating steps (2) - (3) on SOI substrate layer 12;
(13) And (3) etching to the SOI wafer buried oxide layer 11 by adopting ICP deep silicon to form an etching groove, so as to finish the movable structure of the in-situ stress measuring device for the MEMS sensor:
(14) Wet etching is adopted to etch the buried oxide layer 11 of the SOI wafer, a sample is put into hydrofluoric acid solution or a hydrofluoric acid gas phase etching machine to etch the buried oxide layer 11 of the SOI wafer, photoresist on the surface of the substrate layer is removed, and the structure is released.
The process flow of fig. 5 is similar to that of fig. 4, except that the former is an SOI wafer and the latter is monocrystalline silicon, and will not be described again here. Wherein 18 denotes a metal layer material.
It will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foregoing description is merely a preferred embodiment of the invention and is not intended to limit the invention, but any modifications, equivalents, improvements or alternatives falling within the spirit and principles of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.

Claims (10)

1. An in-situ stress measurement device for a MEMS sensor, comprising: silicon-based structures and metal pads;
the silicon-based structure is positioned on the bottom surface, and a stress input end, a flexible torsion beam, a lever beam, a flexible folding beam and a supporting contact are etched on the silicon-based structure; wherein,
the stress input end is used for transmitting stress to the flexible torsion beam after external stress changes;
the flexible torsion beam is used for deforming under the action of stress and entering the lever beam through the supporting contact;
the lever beam is used for entering the flexible folding beam after the stress is amplified by the lever amplification principle;
the flexible folding beam is deposited with metal strain wires for sensing stress change and generating resistance value change;
the metal bonding pad is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure and is used for electrically connecting metal strain wires and providing an interface for the outside.
2. The in-situ stress measuring device of claim 1, wherein the metallic strain wire is a single layer thin film structure or a multi-layer thin film structure, and the type of thin film material is an insulating material and/or a metallic material.
3. The in-situ stress measuring device of claim 2, wherein the resistance of the metallic material varies linearly with temperature.
4. An in situ stress measuring device as claimed in claim 3 wherein said metallic material is gold or platinum.
5. The in situ stress measuring device of claim 1, wherein the silicon-based structure is an SOI wafer, a monocrystalline silicon wafer, or other type of silicon wafer.
6. The in situ stress measuring device of claim 1, wherein the in situ stress measuring device further comprises: the temperature compensation wire is deposited on the surface of the silicon-based structure and is used for generating resistance value change when stress change is caused by the temperature change of the working environment of the MEMS sensor, and the resistance value change is sent to a subsequent circuit or a processing module so as to remove resistance temperature effect.
7. The in situ stress measuring device of claim 6, wherein the metal bond pad is further configured to electrically couple the metal strain wire and the temperature compensation wire into a wheatstone bridge circuit to remove resistive temperature effects.
8. The in-situ stress measuring device of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the in-situ stress measuring device is of axisymmetric construction.
9. The in-situ stress measuring device according to any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the measuring range of the in-situ stress measuring device is 100Pa-500Mpa and the measuring accuracy is 0.1Pa-1Pa.
10. The in situ stress measuring device of any of claims 1 to 7, wherein the in situ stress measuring device is integrally deployed on a MEMS sensor in a single or array.
CN202311865237.1A 2023-12-28 2023-12-28 In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor Pending CN117804652A (en)

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Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202311865237.1A CN117804652A (en) 2023-12-28 2023-12-28 In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202311865237.1A CN117804652A (en) 2023-12-28 2023-12-28 In-situ stress measuring device for MEMS sensor

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN117804652A true CN117804652A (en) 2024-04-02

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Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
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