Simulation, fabrication and testing of bulk micromachined 6H-SiC high-g piezoresistive accelerometers

Silicon Carbide: A Biocompatible Semiconductor Used in Advanced Biosensors and BioMEMS/NEMS

“…Although conventional wet chemical techniques are not effective in etching structures into SiC substrates, several electrochemical etch processes have been demonstrated and used in the fabrication of bulk micromachined SiC MEMS devices from 6H-and 4H-SiC substrates. Examples of such structures include pressure sensors [14], accelerometers [15], and more recently, biosensors [16]. It is worth mentioning that, the good biocompatibility of devices made with common micromachining technologies allows the exploration of these technologies.…”

Recent Developments on Silicon Carbide Thin Films for Piezoresistive Sensors Applications

“…Another sensor type that has been developed based on SiC is the accelerometer. However, for now, the studies are still focused on piezoresistive accelerometers based on 6H-SiC bulk substrate (Atwell et al, 2003) or on SiC thin-film capacitive accelerometers (Rajaraman et al, 2011). This occurs because the capacitive accelerometer is usually more sensitive than piezoresistive one and furthermore can be used in a wide range of temperature.…”

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

“…Although the gauge factor of the SiC piezoresistors was compromised with increasing operating temperature, sensing capabilities up to 400°C have been demonstrated. Another important area of technology is SiC accelerometers which are particularly attractive for detecting high-g acceleration at elevated temperatures such as in aeroplane engine, military and space applications (Atwell et al, 2003;Okojie et al, 2001). Recent findings from Pakula and French have demonstrated a CMOS compatible 3D SiC capacitive accelerometer with both vertical and lateral accelerometers fabricated in the same process using PECVD SiC (Pakula et al, 2003a,b).…”