Nickel surface micromachining

Author

Furukawa, S. ; Roy, S. ; Miyajima, H. ; Mehregany, M.

Author_Institution

Central Res. Lab., Asahi Chem. Ind. Co. Ltd., Shizuoka, Japan

fYear

1995

fDate

4-6 Oct 1995

Firstpage

161

Lastpage

166

Abstract

This paper describes a one-mask surface micromachining process in which nickel is used as a structural material and polysilicon as a sacrificial layer. High-aspect-ratio photolithography, up to 20 μm thickness, is used for making a plating mold. Electroless plating on polysilicon is used for nickel deposition. 1 to 5 μm thick polysilicon is deposited in a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process. A short pretreatment etch of polysilicon prior to electroless plating, causes the polysilicon surface to become porous, providing a suitable mechanical bonding site for excellent adhesion of nickel. KOH is used for etching the polysilicon sacrificial layer for releasing a nickel moving part. Using this process, electrostatic nickel microactuators ranging from 5 to 20 pm in thickness are fabricated

Keywords

chemical vapour deposition; electroless deposition; elemental semiconductors; etching; microactuators; micromachining; micromechanical devices; nickel; photolithography; potassium compounds; silicon; 1 to 5 mum; 20 mum; KOH; Ni; Ni deposition; Ni surface; Ni-Si; Pt mold; Si; adhesion; electroless plating; high-aspect-ratio photolithography; low-pressure chemical vapor deposition; mechanical bonding; microactuators; one-mask surface micromachining; photolithography; polysilicon surface; porous material; pretreatment; sacrificial layer; structural material; Electrostatics; Etching; Fabrication; Laboratories; Microactuators; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Nickel; Silicon; Substrates;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Machine and Human Science, 1995. MHS '95., Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Nagoya

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2676-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MHS.1995.494233

Filename

494233