Adopting semiconductor metrology to meet the challenges of MEMS manufacturing

摘要

MEMS manufacturers face the unique challenge of extending semiconductor manufacturing technologies to the fabrication of 3-D mechanical devices. For example, two of the most commercially important MEMS applications, accelerometers and ink-jet printheads, are typically made using processes derived from the semiconductor manufacturing area. Processing costs for the relatively small MEMS industry would be prohibitively expensive if manufacturers were forced to employ custom toolsets made from scratch. However, although MEMS processing technologies are often based on semiconductor technologies, ICs and MEMS devices bear very little similarity to each other. Hence, a key ingredient in the successful adaptation of semiconductor toolsets to the MEMS area is communication and cooperation between IC equipment vendors and MEMS tool owners.