AVS 49th International Symposium
    Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Thursday Sessions
       Session MM+TF-ThM

Paper MM+TF-ThM11
Incorporating Chemically Functional Materials on MEMS Structures

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 11:40 am, Room C-210

Session: Development and Characterization of MEMS Materials
Presenter: S. Semancik, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Authors: S. Semancik, National Institute of Standards and Technology
R.E. Cavicchi, National Institute of Standards and Technology
N.O. Savage, National Institute of Standards and Technology
C.J. Taylor, National Institute of Standards and Technology
D.C. Meier, National Institute of Standards and Technology
C.B. Montgomery, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Low power microsensors and microanalytical systems based on MEMS platforms are expected to profoundly impact the areas of chemical and biological sensing. Fabrication of such chemical microdevices, however, requires that chemically functional materials be integrated with a variety of MEMS structures, challenging researchers to develop processing methods that are reliable, as well as compatible with microelectronic materials and micromachining. In this presentation we describe a range of film deposition procedures for localized deposition of oxides, metals, polymers and other materials on surface-micromachined components. The procedures, which have been developed within our chemical microsensor program, are typically performed on target areas of ~ 100 µm x 100 µm. They include: self-lithographic, thermally-activated CVD on microhotplate structures; addressable electrodeposition; spinning on and selectively removing sol-gels and colloidal suspensions as well as thermally-evolved resists; the use of microheaters to process high area porous films (from silsesquioxanes); utilization of tiny (lithographically-defined) shadow masks with evaporation; and micro-pipetting. Locally-deposited materials are characterized by SEM, AFM, EDS and other spectroscopic methods, and by electrical probing when it is relevant. We provide examples of processing for nanostructured SnO@sub 2@ and TiO@sub 2@, high-area SiO@sub 2@, ultrathin Pt, Au, Ni and Pd, organosilanes and modified polymers. These materials have been employed on MEMS platforms, individually and in certain combinations, for sensing, preconcentration, separation and patterning. The role of multielement microarrays in efficiently optimizing deposition methods for some films will also be discussed.