Microelectromechanical system fabrication

The high selectivity of wet etchants for different materials, e.g. Al, Si, SiOz and Si3N4, is indispensable in semiconductor manufacturing today. The combination of photolithographic patterning and anisotropic as well as isotropic etching of silicon led to a multitude of applications in the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). 

Our communications infrastructure relies heavily on advanced materials chemistries. From the manufacturing processes used to fabricate optical fiber cables to molecular beam epitaxy techniques for the creation of nanoscale heterostructures that enable many optical devices, innovations in materials chemistry have played a role. An example of a recent technological achievement that relates to optical communications systems is the MEMS-based (microelectromechanical system) Lambda Router. The Lambda Router is an optical system developed at Lucent Technologies for switching narrowly focused... 

MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) are systems with small device sizes of 1-100 pm. They are typically driven by electrical signals. To fabricate such systems materials like semiconductors, metals, and polymers are commonly used. MEMS technology fabrication is very cost-efficient. The structures are transferred by processes, which are applied to many systems on one substrate or even many of them simultaneously. The most important fabrication processes are physical vapor deposition (PVD), chemical vapor deposition (CVD), lithography, wet chemical etching, and dry etching. Typical examples for MEMS are pressure, acceleration, and gyro sensors [28,29], DLPs [30], ink jets [31], compasses [32], and also (bio)medical devices. 

The fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), e.g. actuators and sensors, is also one of the promising applications for nickel films. Nickel is currently electroplated into preform molds. One typical process is the LIGA process, where pure or alloyed nickel films are... 

Some of these will be discussed here with various attributes that they possess. Aside from the conventional substrates, others that are currently under development are short contact time (SCT) reactors that consist of screens, mesh, or expanded metal that are typically fabricated from high-temperature FeCrAl alloys. Reticulated foams that combine the very low pressure drop of monoliths with the improved transport of SCT reactors are often used. There are flat plate and microchannel reactors and recently microelectromechanical system (MEMS) reactor geometries that have been fabricated. In comparison to monolith or pellet beds, SCT substrates seem to allow Prox reactors to operate at significantly lower water concentrations before the onset of the hydrogen oxidation reaction, that is, the high-temperature steady state. 

In Carbon-Microelectromechanical system (C-MEMS), carbon interdigitated electrodes are fabricated from positive photoresist spin coated on a silicon substrate. 

Electrochemically Fabricated Microelectromechanical Systems/ Nanoelectromechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS)... 

Judy JW (2001) Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) fabrication, design and apphca-tion. Smart Mater Struct 10 1115-1134... 

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