Shusen Huang

Extension of the Stoney formula for film?substrate systems with gradient stress for MEMS applications

Using the Stoney formula and its modifications, curvature-based techniques are gaining increasingly widespread application in evaluating the stress in a film on a substrate. In principle, the formula applies only when the stress is uniform throughout the film thickness. The main purpose of this paper is to extend the Stoney formula when the residual strain in the film is no longer uniform, but dependent on the z position. To achieve this goal, a general theory was introduced for the elastic deformation of an arbitrary, multilayered system. By practicing this general theory, we used a polynomial function to describe the gradient stress in a film, and contributions by different elements of the polynomial to both the curvature and the bending strain were derived. A finite element simulation for a typical film–substrate structure was then carried out, leading to the verification of the theory developed in this paper. In the discussion section, we explored the relation between the surface curvature and the bending curvature as well as the difference between the stress in the constrained planar state and that in the relaxed state. In addition, the accuracy of the simplified formula, using thin film approximation, was evaluated. Finally, a SiNx-Al MEMS structure was studied by using the formula in this paper.

Transient mechanical and electrical properties of uncooled resistive microbolometer focal plane arrays

Recent advances in MEMS and focal plane array (FPA) technologies have led to the development of manufacturing microbolometers monolithically on a readout integrated circuit (ROIC). In this work, both numerical and finite element methods were performed to simulate the transient electrical and mechanical responses of resistive microbolometer FPAs made by several TCR (thermal coefficient of resistance) materials including a-Si, VOx and semiconducting YBCO. Numerical simulation shows that the pulsed bias readout mode in resistive microbolometer FPAs causes a non-steady-state of the system during the operation. As a result, NETD decreases with the increasing pulse width. In FPAs, the array size, frame rate, ROIC and mechanical reliability set the up-limit to the pulse width. The transient mechanical response for three microbolometer configurations was investigated using finite element modeling. The biased pulse results in membrane bending along the z-axis for the symmetric extended configuration (Type I), or twisting in three axes for the asymmetric extended configuration (Type II) due to the constraint force from the supporting arms. The square configuration (Type III) exhibits the smallest deformation and minimum shear stress at the sharp geometries. a-Si microbolometer generates higher shear stress than other microbolometers with the same square configuration.

Study of gradient stress in bimaterial cantilever structures for infrared applications

Bimaterial SiNx/Al infrared cantilever structures are always initially curved because of the imbalanced residual stress in the two layers. Their performance and functionality are therefore significantly decreased. A thorough study of the residual stress (strain) has then become a key issue in the development of bimaterial SiNx/Al cantilever structures. In the curvature-based approach to the film stress, the residual strain is derived from the measured curvature based on certain assumptions on the distribution of the residual strain in the thickness direction. Previous models for a bimaterial cantilever structure, however, are not sufficient to characterize the residual strain in bimaterial SiNx/Al infrared structures. The main goal of this paper is to investigate gradient residual strain in bimaterial SiNx/Al infrared structures. To achieve this goal, the relationship between the residual strain and bending curvature is developed with the assumption that the residual strain in each layer is linearly distributed rather than uniform throughout the thickness. The profile of the gradient strain is then derived from the curvatures measured during the continuous etching of the top-most SiNx in the bimaterial cantilevers. The derived residual strain can then be inverted to predict curvature change further in the etching process. This paper demonstrates that a linear assumption of the residual strain yields a stronger agreement with the measured data in comparison to previously used models. In addition, several factors that may affect measurement accuracy are discussed at the end of the paper.

Double-Cantilever Infrared Detector: Fabrication, Curvature Control and Demonstration of Thermal Detection

This paper reports the recent progress on the development of double-cantilever infrared (IR) detectors, including the fabrication using a low-temperature surface micromachining module with two sacrificial layers of polyimide, the post-process curvature control using rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and also the first-time demonstration of thermal detection using capacitive-based IR FPAs.

Development of Double-cantilever Infrared Focal Plane Arrays: Fabrication and Post-process Curvature Modification

Uncooled double-cantilever microbolometers have the potential of reaching a noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) approaching the theoretical limit and thus have gained increasing interest. Each pixel of the device consists of two overlapping bimaterial cantilevers that deflect in opposite directions as their temperature rises due to the absorption of incident infrared radiation. This paper reports recent progress in the development of these double-cantilever focal plane arrays (FPAs), including fabrication and post-process curvature modification.