Development of gallium nitride-based MEMS structures

Author

Stonas, A.R. ; Turner, K.L. ; DenBaars, S.P. ; Hu, E.L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1156

Abstract

The fabrication of MEMS structures has generally depended on the ability to carry out highly selective, deep lateral and vertical etching of the component materials. This is particularly problematic in gallium nitride (GaN) and the associated AlGaN and InGaN materials, which are all noted for their chemical inertness. We report here a method for producing MEMS in this material system based on backside-illuminated photoelectrochemical (BIPEC) undercut wet etching. We also discuss resonance spectra of structures fabricated by this method, including cantilevers and membranes.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; etching; gallium compounds; indium compounds; micromechanical devices; photoelectrochemistry; semiconductor devices; wide band gap semiconductors; AlGaN; InGaN; MEMS fabrication; backside-illuminated photoelectrochemical undercut wet etching; chemical inertness; gallium nitride-based MEMS structures; lateral etching; resonance spectra; vertical etching; Actuators; Capacitive sensors; Cathodes; Dry etching; Gallium nitride; Micromechanical devices; Optical materials; Optical sensors; Semiconductor materials; Wet etching;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 12th International Conference on, 2003

Conference_Location

Boston, MA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7731-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2003.1216976

Filename

1216976