Sandia National Labs., Intelligent Micromachine Dept., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Abstract
A review is made of the infrastructure, technology and capabilities of Sandia National Laboratories for the development of micromechanical systems that have potential space applications. By incorporating advanced fabrication processes, such as chemical mechanical polishing, and several mechanical polysilicon levels, the range of micromechanical systems that can be fabricated in these technologies is virtually limitless. Representative applications include a micro-engine driven mirror, and a micromachined lock. Using a novel integrated MEMS/CMOS technology, a six degree-of-freedom accelerometer/gyroscope system has been designed by researchers at U.C. Berkeley and fabricated on the same silicon chip as the CMOS control circuits to produce an integrated micro-navigational unit