Drawings
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a MEMS device upon release.
FIG. 2 illustrates a stress failure schematic of a MEMS device upon release.
Fig. 3-7 are schematic flow diagrams of a method of fabricating a microelectromechanical systems device according to an embodiment.
Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to one embodiment.
Reference numerals:
101. The semiconductor device comprises a substrate, 102, a sacrificial layer, 103, a micro-electromechanical system device layer, 104, a passivation layer, 105, a bonding pad, an interconnection structure layer, 106, a temporary protection layer, 107 back holes, 108, a sensing layer, 1, a substrate, 2, a sacrificial layer, 3, a micro-electromechanical system device layer, 4, a temporary bonding layer, 5, a carrier layer, 6, a back hole, 200, electronic equipment, 201 and a micro-electromechanical system device.
Detailed Description
Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the relative arrangement of the components and steps, numerical expressions and numerical values set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present disclosure unless it is specifically stated otherwise.
The following description of at least one exemplary embodiment is merely illustrative in nature and is in no way intended to limit the disclosure, its application, or uses.
Techniques, methods, and apparatus known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but are intended to be part of the specification where appropriate.
In all examples shown and discussed herein, any specific values should be construed as merely illustrative, and not a limitation. Thus, other examples of exemplary embodiments may have different values.
It should be noted that like reference numerals and letters refer to like items in the following figures, and thus once an item is defined in one figure, no further discussion thereof is necessary in subsequent figures.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a MEMS device upon release. FIG. 2 illustrates a stress schematic of a MEMS device upon release.
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a MEMS device prior to release. As shown in fig. 1, the mems device includes a substrate 101, a sacrificial layer 102, a mems device layer 103, a passivation layer 104, a pad and interconnect structure layer 105, and a sensing layer 108. In fig. 1, a back hole 107 is formed in a substrate 101. Optionally, a temporary protective layer 106 is formed over the MEMS device layer 103. The material of temporary protection layer 106 is typically photoresist.
The substrate 101 is, for example, a thin mems silicon substrate. The material of the sacrificial layer 102 is typically silicon dioxide, which has a high resistance to compression, typically being capable of withstanding pressures above 300 MPa. The mems device layer 103 is a mechanical structure layer of a mems device and may be, for example, a diaphragm, a cantilever, etc. The material of the mems device layer 103 may be silicon or polysilicon. Here, the mems device layer 103 is thin film with a large aspect ratio. The thin film mems device layer 103 can be damaged by the stress of the sacrificial layer 102. The material of the passivation layer 104 may be SiN x. The material of the bonding pad and interconnect structure layer 105 may be Cr/Ni/Au, etc. The sensing layer 108 is, for example, a unit for sensing mechanical changes. For example, in FIG. 1, the sense layer 108 is shown as a magnetic source and a magnetic resistance. The sensing layer 108 may also be other sensing structures.
FIG. 2 illustrates the MEMS device layer 103 breaking when released. For example, MEMS device layer 103 is patterned, while the underlying sacrificial layer is unpatterned. A back hole 107 is formed in the silicon substrate by front-to-back alignment lithography and Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE). The back hole 107 stops at the sacrificial layer. The mems device layer 103 is typically designed to have low tensile stress. The sacrificial layer of silicon dioxide typically has a high compressive stress and is relatively thick (e.g., 0.5-2 microns), which creates a relatively large stress gradient. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, MEMS device layer 103 is susceptible to fracture under such non-uniform stresses. The protective layer in fig. 1 is typically not rigid and therefore it does not completely protect the thin film mems device layer 103.
The inventors of the present invention propose a solution that uses a wafer support system to assist in release. Various embodiments are described below with reference to fig. 3-8.
Figures 3-7 illustrate a schematic flow diagram of a method of manufacturing a microelectromechanical systems device according to an embodiment.
As shown in fig. 3, a sacrificial layer 2 is formed on a mems substrate 1, and a mems device layer 3 is formed on the sacrificial layer 2.
The mems substrate 1 may be silicon, for example, with a thickness in the range 380-750 microns. The sacrificial layer 2 is for example silicon dioxide or a buried oxide. The mems device layer 3 may be a mems mechanical layer, for example, its material may be silicon, polysilicon or other material constituting a mechanical structure.
Further, similar to fig. 1, passivation layers, pads and interconnect structure layers, and sensing layers may also be included on the mems device layer 3. Their description is not repeated here.
The carrier layer 5 is then temporarily bonded to the mems device layer 3 via the temporary bonding layer 4. The carrier layer 5 is transparent and rigid. For example, the thickness of the carrier layer 5 is 300 to 700 μm. The carrier layer 5 may be a supporting wafer.
As will be understood by those skilled in the art, herein, "transparent" means that the carrier layer 5 is transparent to the light used for the debonding. By "rigid" is meant that upon removal of the sacrificial layer 2, the carrier layer 5 is sufficient to support the mems device layer 3 against stress upon release.
The material of the temporary bonding layer 4 may be, for example, photoresist, adhesive, or the like. The temperature at which temporary bonding is performed by the temporary bonding layer 4 is preferably less than 150 degrees. For example, the temporary bonding layer 4 has a thickness of between 1 and 10 microns, preferably between 2 and 5 microns, so that the problem of temperature scattering due to thermal insulation can be avoided.
Fig. 4 and 5 show the process of releasing the mems device layer 3 by processing the sacrificial layer 2.
As shown in fig. 4, the substrate 1 is processed to form the back hole 6. The substrate 1 may be thinned to a thickness of 50 to 250 microns by back grinding. The substrate 1 may also be polished if desired (e.g., the thickness of the substrate 1 to be formed is less than 100 microns). Next, patterning and etching may be performed by deep reactive ion etching DRIE to form the back hole 6. At this stage, the back hole 6 stops at the sacrificial layer 2. The material of the sacrificial layer 2 may be silicon dioxide, which may have a thickness of 0.5 to 2 microns. At this time, the carrier layer 5 stably supports the mems device layer 3, and thus, there is no additional stress concentration or damage in the mems device layer 3.
As shown in fig. 5, the mems device layer 3 is released. The sacrificial layer 2 is etched by reactive ion etching RIE or wet etching (e.g., using hydrofluoric acid HF or buffered oxide etchant BOE) to release the microelectromechanical system device layer 3. Since the low stress level mems device layer 3 is supported by the rigid carrier layer 5 (or carrier wafer), the high stress level sacrificial layer can be safely removed with reduced likelihood of damaging the mems device layer 3.
Fig. 6 illustrates the process of debonding the carrier layer 5 from the released mems device layer 3 by exposure. As indicated by the arrow in fig. 6, light for debonding, for example, laser light, ultraviolet light, or the like is irradiated from the carrier layer 5 side. The debonding occurs at the interface of the carrier layer 5 and the temporary bonding layer 4 due to the irradiation of light, and the carrier layer 5 and the temporary bonding layer 4 are separated.
Here, the temporary bonding layer 4 is softer relative to the carrier layer 5, and thus, upon exposure, the temporary bonding layer 4 may act as a stress buffer layer between the carrier layer 5 and the mems device layer 3, thereby avoiding damaging the mems device layer 3 upon debonding.
After debonding, the carrier layer 5 can be easily removed mechanically.
As shown in fig. 7, the temporary bonding layer 4 is removed. For example, the bonding layer 4 may be peeled off by oxygen plasma, solvent/chemical agent, or the like.
The MEMS device formed in the manner described above may be formed on a thinner MEMS substrate to form a non-destructive MEMS structure or a low stress/controllable stress MEMS structure. This is very advantageous for high performance mems devices, for example, for high performance microphones. In addition, this may increase the yield of the MEMS device. The mems device layers may have lower stress in the mems devices formed by the manner in the embodiments herein than the previous mems devices under the same conditions. Furthermore, the MEMS devices herein have differences from previous MEMS devices due to process differences, for example, where the temporary bonding layer is removed after the carrier layer is removed.
Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of an electronic device according to one embodiment disclosed herein. As shown in FIG. 8, the electronic device 200 may include a MEMS device 201, and the MEMS device 201 may be a MEMS device formed by a 3-7 process. The electronic device 200 may be a cell phone, tablet, wearable device, etc. The mems magnetic sensor 201 may be a microphone, a pressure sensor, an inertial sensor, or the like.
Although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail by way of example, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above examples are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure herein.