MEMS technology development and manufacturing in a CMOS foundry

Abstract

MEMS technology development and MEMS manufacturing activities at TSMC are presented. Two models for process development, i.e. customer product/process "phase-in" and internally developed "platform" are discussed. The latter is a TSMC-MEMS platform for motion sensors and other devices.

Differential micro-Pirani gauge for monitoring MEMS wafer-level package

“…The proposed idea was realized in tsmc CMOS-MEMS monolithic platform [4]. This platform was developed for manufacturing motion sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, and thus their hemeticities need to be in-process monitored.…”

Single chip process for sensors implementation, integration, and condition monitoring

“…Yet the residual stresses and reliability issues remain concerns. The Si above IC motion sensor process scheme has been reported by CMOS foundry in [1] to offer the shortest interconnect between the MEMS device and sensing circuits. However, thermal budget remains a critical concern.…”

“…In the past, TSMC had developed motion sensor process technology [1], the integration approach offers the shortest interconnect between the MEMS device and the nodes internal to CMOS. However, the original process was requested to improve in many aspects, such as thicker MEMS structure, which has no thermal budget limitation for device formation, pressure monitor in tiny chamber, the capability to combine multi-device in one chip, as well as the capability for both two-chip and monolithic integration.…”

Wafer-level heterogeneous 3D integration for MEMS and NEMS

“…4b a top view of a commercial gyroscope that has been manufactured with this technology [3]. A commercially available via-last heterogeneous 3D integration platform technology has been presented by semiconductor foundry TSMC, Ltd (Taiwan) [4]. The process flow for this standardized MEMS technology platform is shown in Fig.…”

“…It is remarkable that heterogeneously integrated MEMS devices have recently emerged and succeeded in very competitive markets such as for very high-volume consumer applications [2][3][4]. Some of the contributing factors to this commercial success of heterogeneous integration technologies are their compatibility with fables MEMS business models, the ability to utilize standard CMOS ICs from various sources and the possibility to shrink the overall MEMS or NEMS device dimensions and thus, enabling the combination of multiple sensors on a highly integrated single chip.…”