IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Thursday Sessions
       Session MM-ThM

Paper MM-ThM5
Fabrication Techniques and Integration Processes for a New Ultrananocrystalline Diamond (UNCD) -Based MEMS Technology and Characterization of UNCD Mechanical Properties

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 9:40 am, Room 130

Session: Characterization of MEMS Materials
Presenter: O. Auciello, Argonne National Laboratory
Authors: O. Auciello, Argonne National Laboratory
A.V. Sumant, Argonne National Laboratory
D.M. Gruen, Argonne National Laboratory
J.A. Carlisle, Argonne National Laboratory
J. Birrell, Argonne National Laboratory
N.A. Moldovan, Argonne National Laboratory
D.C. Mancini, Argonne National Laboratory
M. Angadi, Argonne National Laboratory
H.D. Espinosa, Northwestern University
B.C. Prorok, Northwestern University
Correspondent: Click to Email
State-of-the-art Si-based MEMS components exhibit serious performance limitations due to the relatively poor mechanical and tribological properties of Si. Diamond and diamond-like materials are investigated for MEMS applications, but they also have microstructural /properties, and/or processing limitations. A novel diamond coating technology developed at ANL yields phase-pure UNCD coatings with 2-5 nm grains and smooth surfaces,in addition to hardness of 97 GPa and friction coefficient of ~ 0.01, both similar to pure diamond. The unique growth process (involving C60 or CH4 /Ar microwave plasmas), based on C2 dimer insertion into the growing film, results in low activation energy for growth of UNCD on various substrates down to a record low temperature of ~350 °C. We demonstrated the fabrication of high-resolution UNCD-based 2-D and 3-D MEMS components, such as micro-gears, pinwheels,cantilevers, strain-gauges, and a microturbine, via growth of UNCD on Si and sacrificial SiO@sub 2@ layers, and selective etching. UNCD coatings can be grown conformally on high aspect ratio Si structures. UNCD coatings exhibit excellent mechanical and tribological properties, in addition to extremely low threshold voltage for electron field emission, which allows to produce MEMS sensors using the uniquely combined mechanical/electron emission properties of UNCD. We will discuss fabrication issues and UNCD properties applicable to MEMS. Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, BES-Materials Sciences, under Contract W-31-109-ENG-38.