• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.10-14
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• 2021

Wet etching is more economical than dry etching and provides a uniform etching depth regardless of wafer sizes. Typically, potassium hydroxide (KOH) and tetra-methyl-ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) solutions are widely used for the wet etching of silicon. However, there is a limit to the wet etching process when a material deposited on an unetched surface reacts with an etching solution. To solve this problem, in this study, an apparatus was designed and manufactured to physically block the inflow of etchants on the surface using a rubber O-ring. The proposed apparatus includes a heater and a temperature controller to maintain a constant temperature during etching, and the hydrostatic pressure of the etchant is considered for the thin film structure. A corrugation membrane with a diameter of 800 ㎛, thickness of 600 nm, and corrugation depth of 3 ㎛ with two corrugations was successfully fabricated using the prepared device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.03b
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• pp.13-13
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• 2010

Piezoelectric sensors are extensively used to measure force because of their high sensitivity and low cost. however, the development of device with reduced size but with improved sensitivity is highly important. Low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) is one of promising materials for this application than a silicon substrate because it has very good electrical and mechanical properties as well as possibility of making various three dimensional (3D) structures. In this work, piezoelectric pressure sensors based on hybrid LTCC technology were presented. The LTCC diaphragms with thickness of $400\;{\mu}m$ were fabricated by laminating 12 green tapes which consist of alumina and glass particle in an organic binder. The piezoelectric sensing layer consists of PZT thin film deposited by RF magnetron sputtering method on between top and bottom Au electrodes. The PZT films deposited on LTCC diaphragms were successfully grown and were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction method (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM).

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2000.04a
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• pp.29-33
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• 2000

MEMS, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems, present one of the greatest advanced packaging challenges of the next decade. Historically hybrid technology, generally thick film, provided sensors and actuators while integrated circuit technologies provided the microelectronics for interpretation and control of the sensor input and actuator output. Brought together in MEMS these technical fields create new opportunities for miniaturization and performance. Integrated circuit processing technologies combined with hybrid design systems yield innovative sensors and actuators for a variety of applications from single crystal silicon wafers. MEMS packages, far more simple in principle than today's electronic packages, provide only physical protection to the devices they house. However, they cannot interfere with the function of the devices and often must actually facilitate the performance of the device. For example, a pressure transducer may need to be open to atmospheric pressure on one side of the detector yet protected from contamination and blockage. Similarly, an optical device requires protection from contamination without optical attenuation or distortion being introduced. Despite impediments such as package standardization and complexity, MEMS markets expect to double by 2003 to more than ＄9 billion, largely driven by micro-fluidic applications in the medical arena. Like the semiconductor industry before it. MEMS present many diverse demands on the advanced packaging engineering community. With focused effort, particularly on standards and packaging process efficiency. MEMS may offer the greatest opportunity for technical advancement as well as profitability in advanced packaging in the first decade of the 21st century! This paper explores MEMS packaging opportunities and reviews specific technical challenges to be met.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.733-740
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• 2014

A resistive micro Pirani gauge using amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin membrane is proposed. The proposed Pirani gauge can be easily integrated with the other process-compatible membrane-type sensors, and can be applicable for in-situ vacuum monitoring inside the vacuum package without an additional process. The vacuum level is measured by the resistance changes of the membrane using the low noise correlated double sampling (CDS) capacitive trans-impedance amplifier (CTIA). The measured vacuum range of the Pirani gauge is 0.1 to 10 Torr. The sensitivity and non-linearity are measured to be 78 mV / Torr and 0.5% in the pressure range of 0.1 to 10 Torr. The output noise level is measured to be $268{\mu}V_{rms}$ in 0.5 Hz to 50 Hz, which is 41.2% smaller than conventional CTIA.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

In recent years, developments in the semiconductor and electronic industries have brought a rapid increase in the use of large size silicon wafer. For further improvement of the ultra precision surface and flatness of Si wafer necessary to high density ULSI, it is known that polishing is very important. However, most of these investigation was experiment less than 300mm diameter. Polishing is one of the important methods in manufacturing of Si wafers and in thinning of completed device wafers. This study reports the machining variables that has major influence on the characteristic of wafer polishing. It was adapted to polishing pressure, machining speed, and the slurry mix ratio, the optimum condition is selected by ultra precision wafer polishing using load cell and infrared temperature sensor. The optimum machining condition is selected a result data that use a pressure and table speed data. By using optimum condition, it achieves a ultra precision mirror like surface.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.55-59
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the characteristics of shear stress type piezoresistor on a diaphragm structure formed by MEMS (Microelectromechanical System) technology of silicon-direct-bonding (SDB) wafers with Si/$SiO_2$/Si-sub. The diaphragm structure formed by etching the backside of the wafer using a TMAH aqueous solution can be used for manufacturing various sensors. In this study, the optimum shape condition of the shear stress type piezoresistor formed on the diaphragm is found through ANSYS simulation, and the diaphragm structure is formed by using the semiconductor microfabrication technique and the shear stress formed by boron implantation. The characteristics of the piezoelectric resistance are compared with the simulation results. The sensing diaphragm was made in the shape of an exact square. It has been experimentally found that the maximum shear stress for the same pressure at the center of the edge of the diaphragm is generated when the structure is in the exact square shape. Thus, the sensing part of the sensor has been designed to be placed at the center of the edge of the diaphragm. The prepared shear stress type piezoresistor was in good agreement with the simulation results, and the sensitivity of the piezoresistor formed on the $2200{\mu}m{\times}2200{\mu}m$ diaphragm was $183.7{\mu}V/kPa$ and the linearity of 1.3 %FS at the pressure range of 0~100 kPa and the symmetry of sensitivity was also excellent.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.27-32
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• 2020

This study proposes a pixel-patterning method for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on thermal transfer. An infrared lamp was introduced as a heat source, and glass type donor element, which absorbs infrared and generates heat and then transfers the organic layer to the substrate, was designed to selectively sublimate the organic material. A 200 nm-thick layer of molybdenum (Mo) was used as the lightto-heat conversion (LTHC) layer, and a 300 nm-thick layer of patterned silicon dioxide (SiO₂), featuring a low heat-transfer coefficient, was formed on top of the LTHC layer to selectively block heat transfer. To prevent the thermal oxidation and diffusion of the LTHC material, a 100 nm-thick layer of silicon nitride (SiN_x) was coated on the material. The fabricated donor glass exhibited appropriate temperature-increment property until 249 ℃, which is enough to evaporate the organic materials. The alpha-step thickness profiler and X-ray reflection (XRR) analysis revealed that the thickness of the transferred film decreased with increase in film density. In the patterning test, we achieved a 100 ㎛-long line and dot pattern with a high transfer accuracy and a mean deviation of ± 4.49 ㎛. By using the thermal-transfer process, we also fabricated a red phosphorescent device to confirm that the emissive layer was transferred well without the separation of the host and the dopant owing to a difference in their evaporation temperatures. Consequently, its efficiency suffered a minor decline owing to the oxidation of the material caused by the poor vacuum pressure of the process chamber; however, it exhibited an identical color property.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.326-331
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• 2014

In this study, a MEMS microphone that uses $Si_3N_4$ as the vibration membrane was produced for application as an auditory device using a sound visualization technique (sound visualization) for the hearing impaired. Two sheets of 6-inch silicon wafer were each fabricated into a vibration membrane and back plate, after which, wafer bonding was performed. A certain amount of charge was created between the bonded vibration membrane and the back plate electrodes, and a MEMS microphone that functioned through the capacitive method that uses change in such charge was fabricated. In order to evaluate the characteristics of the prepared MEMS microphone, the frequency flatness, frequency response, properties of phase between samples, and directivity according to the direction of sound source were analyzed. The MEMS microphone showed excellent flatness per frequency in the audio frequency (100 Hz-10 kHz) and a high response of at least -42 dB (sound pressure level). Further, a stable differential phase between the samples of within -3 dB was observed between 100 Hz-6 kHz. In particular, excellent omnidirectional properties were demonstrated in the frequency range of 125 Hz-4 kHz.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07b
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• pp.1033-1036
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• 2003

In this paper, Si anisotropic etching characteristics of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)/ ammonium persulfate (AP) solutions were investigated to realize the optimum structure of a diaphragm for the piezoresistive pressure sensor application. Due to its low toxicity and its high compatibility with the CMOS processing, TMAH was used as Si anisotropic etchants. The variations of Si etch rate on the etching temperature, TMAH concentration, and etching time were obtained. With increasing the etching temperature and decreasing TMAH concentrations, the Si etch rate is increased while a significant non-uniformity exists on the etched surface because of formation of hillocks on the <100> surface. With the addition of AP to TMAH solution, the Si etch rate is increased and an improvement in flatness on the etching front is observed. The Si etch rate is also maximized with increasing the number of addition of AP to TMAH solution per one hour. The Si square diaphragms of 20${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ thickness and 100~400${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ one-side length were fabricated successfully by applying optimum Si etching conditions of TMAH/AP solutions.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.433-438
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• 2013

In this paper, we found surface shapes are affected by several parameters of RIE, such as RF power, pressure, temp, and process times. The reflectance of pyramid and half sphere structures show differences among shapes, size, height, and depth of those structures. We made about $1{\mu}m$ pyramid and half sphere shapes of silicon surface with RIE. For comparing the reflectance, pyramid and half sphere structures are fabricated with same height. Pyramid structure cell shows higher cell efficiency of 12.5% by 1.1% than one of half sphere structure of 11.4%. The light absorption is more increased through the pyramid structure than half sphere structure.