The HARPSS process for fabrication of precision MEMS inertial sensors

The high aspect-ratio combined poly- and single-crystal silicon micromachining technology (HARPSS) and its application to fabrication of precision MEMS inertial sensors are presented. HARPSS is a single wafer, all silicon, front-side release process which is capable of producing 10-100's of microns thick, electrically isolated, 3-D poly- and single-crystalline silicon microstructures with various size air-gaps ranging from sub-micron to tens of microns. High aspect-ratio (>50:1) polysilicon structures are created by refilling 100's of microns deep trenches with polysilicon deposited over a sacrificial oxide layer. This technology provides features required for precision micromachined inertial sensors. The all-silicon feature of this technology improves long term stability and temperature sensitivity while fabrication of large area, vertical electrodes with sub-micron gap spacing will increase the sensitivity by orders of magnitude. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.