The Active Dissolved Wafer Process (ADWP) for Integrating single Crystal Si MEMS with CMOS Circuits

This paper presents a fabrication technology for the integration of single crystal Si microstructures with on-chip circuitry. It is a dissolved wafer technique that combines an electro-chemical etch-stop for the protection of circuitry with an impurity-based etch-stop for the microstructures, both of which are defined in an n-epi layer on a p-type Si wafer. A CMOS op. amp. has been integrated with $p^{++}$ Si accelerometers using this process. It has a gain of 68 dB and an output swing within 0.2 V of its power supplies, unaffected by the wafer dissolution. The accelerometers have $3{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$ thick suspension beams and $15{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$ thick proof masses. The structural and electrical integrity of the fabricated devices demonstrates the success of the fabrication process. A variety of lead transfer methods are shown, and process details are discussed.