SOI Digital Accelerometer Based on Pull-in Time Configuration

The operation principle, design, fabrication and measurement results of a quasi digital accelerometer fabricated on a thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate is presented. The accelerometer features quasi-digital output, therefore eliminating the need for analogue signal conditioning. The accelerometer can be directly interfaced to digital electronic circuitry. The measurements showed a pull-in voltage of 2.7 V and a pull-in time from 0 to 1 G to be 3.2 µs.Microelectronics & Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Polarization-insensitive PECVD SiC waveguides for photonic sensing

Planar silicon carbide (SiC) waveguides are proposed for fabrication on a silicon substrate with a oxide isolation layer. Using post deposition annealing it is possible to achieve low Polarization-Dependent Loss (PDL) within optical SiC waveguides fabricated using a low temperature deposition technique. Those waveguides have been successfully used in power splitters and cantilivers. These first devices open the way for photonic sensing in harsh environment using SiC.Electronic Instrumentation LaboratoryElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Robust Wafer-Level Thin-Film Encapsulation (Packaging) of Microstructures (MEMS) using Low Stress PECVD Silicon Carbide

This paper presents a new low-cost, CMOS-compatible and robust wafer-level encapsulation technique developed using a stress-optimised PECVD SiC as the capping and sealing material, imparting harsh environment capability. This technique has been applied for the fabrication and encapsulation of a wide variety of surface- and thin-SOI microstructures that included microcavities, a RF switch and various accelerometers. Advantages of our technique are its versatility, smaller footprint, reduced chip thickness and process complexity, post-CMOS batch processing capability and added functionality due to the possibility of integrating additional electrodes for MEMS. Besides fabrication details, this work also discusses design aspects and demonstrates the encapsulation results. Encapsulation of structural area as large as 955 x 827 µm^2 has been successfully achieved.Microelectronics & Computer EngineeringElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc