Post Fabrication Processing of Foundry MEMS Structures Exhibiting Large, Out-of-Plane Deflections

Abstract

This research effort is focused on the development of large angle, out-of-plane bimorph MEMS micromirrors fabricated in the PolyMUMPs foundry process. Based on design constraints of the PolyMUMPs process, current designs fabricated do not meet the requirements to enable large angle optical steering. Through Comsol modeling and simulation, several post-processing techniques were discovered that could be used to meet the required large out-of-plane deflections. We have performed several post-processing techniques to include silicon nitride and high temperature evaporated gold to verify our Comsol modeling results. Our experimental tests validate the Comsol results of greater than 400 µm deflections are achievable.