SBIR Phase I: Monolithic CMOS-Integration of Electroplated Copper MEMS Inertial Sensors

SBIR 第一阶段：电镀铜 MEMS 惯性传感器的单片 CMOS 集成

• 批准号: 1447397
• 负责人: Noureddine Tayebi
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: InSense Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1447397&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Monolithic; CMOS; Integration

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project can lead to a revolution in the consumerelectronics market (mobile handsets, tablets, game consoles and wearables), wherein high performance,low power, small footprint multisensing (not limited to inertial sensing) platforms with timing devices,are all directly microfabricated on a common ASIC substrate. Sensor fusion can produce unprecedenteduser experiences by using data collected from all sensors and processed using machine learningalgorithms. This can further boost the sensor and timing markets that are expected to exceed $6 billiondollars by 2017. Moreover, the emergent Internet of Things (IoTs) and wearable markets are expected toreach $20 billion dollars by 2025, which can induce a rapid growth of such intelligent sensor fusionmarket. This can have a tremendous societal impact as wearable devices and IoT systems, interfaced withmobile platforms, can be used to monitor people?s health, safety and energy consumption. Making thesesolutions affordable will make it amenable to low income households not only in the US but also aroundthe world. It will also enable researchers to attain new frontiers of knowledge such as in digital sensorysystems. The long-term goals are to provide such intelligent sensor fusion solutions.This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to demonstrate wafer-scalemicrofabrication of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors directly on theapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC) substrates, by using electroplated copper (e-Cu) as astructural material. MEMS inertial sensors, such as gyroscopes and accelerometers, are pervasively usedin consumer electronics and automotive industries. Current trends are, however, requiring higher deviceperformance with smaller footprints, wherein multi-degree-of-freedom sensors are integrated on the samepackage, to enable new capabilities and user experiences. These requirements can be met bymonolithically fabricating inertial sensors on ASIC substrates, which is complex to achieve with siliconas a structural material. Using e-Cu, which is currently used for ASIC metal interconnects, as thestructural material, can enable easier routing to implement optimized mechanical structures, smallerdimensions given the high density of copper, extremely low cost as no wafer bonding is required, smallerform factors, multiple sensors on a single die, and much smaller parasitics providing low noise and higherperformance. Phase I tasks will be to wafer-scale fabricate and characterize e-Cu gyroscopes andaccelerometers with optimal performance parameters and address any drift problems that could emanatefrom structural reliability issues associated with the MEMS elements.

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力可能会引发消费电子市场（手机、平板电脑、游戏机和可穿戴设备）的一场革命，其中高性能、低功耗、小占用空间的多传感（不限于惯性传感）平台具有定时功能器件均直接在通用 ASIC 基板上微制造。传感器融合可以通过使用从所有传感器收集并使用机器学习算法处理的数据来产生前所未有的用户体验。这可以进一步推动传感器和计时市场的增长，预计到 2017 年将超过 60 亿美元。此外，新兴的物联网 (IoT) 和可穿戴设备市场预计到 2025 年将达到 200 亿美元，这将导致此类智能设备的快速增长。传感器融合市场。这可能会产生巨大的社会影响，因为与移动平台连接的可穿戴设备和物联网系统可用于监控人们的健康、安全和能源消耗。让这些解决方案变得经济实惠，不仅适用于美国的低收入家庭，也适用于世界各地的低收入家庭。它还将使研究人员能够获得新的知识领域，例如数字传感系统。长期目标是提供此类智能传感器融合解决方案。这个小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目旨在直接在专用集成电路上演示微机电系统 (MEMS) 惯性传感器的晶圆级微加工（ ASIC）基板，采用电镀铜（e-Cu）作为结构材料。陀螺仪和加速度计等 MEMS 惯性传感器广泛应用于消费电子和汽车行业。然而，当前的趋势是需要更高的设备性能和更小的占地面积，其中多自由度传感器集成在同一封装上，以实现新的功能和用户体验。这些要求可以通过在 ASIC 基板上单片制造惯性传感器来满足，而用硅作为结构材料来实现这一点很复杂。使用目前用于 ASIC 金属互连的 e-Cu 作为结构材料，可以更轻松地布线以实现优化的机械结构，由于铜的高密度，尺寸更小，由于不需要晶圆键合，成本极低，尺寸更小，多传感器位于单个芯片上，并且寄生效应更小，从而提供低噪声和更高的性能。第一阶段的任务将是晶圆级制造和表征具有最佳性能参数的 e-Cu 陀螺仪和加速度计，并解决与 MEMS 元件相关的结构可靠性问题可能产生的任何漂移问题。