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Processing of Thick Dielectric Films for Power MEMS: Stress and Fracture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Kuo-Shen Chen ,
Xin Zhang  and
S. Mark Spearing
Kuo-Shen Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, 701
Xin Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
S. Mark Spearing
Affiliation:
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
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Abstract

This paper presents residual stress characterization and fracture analysis of thick silane based PECVD oxide films. The motivation for this work is to elucidate the factors contributing to residual stress, deformation and fracture of oxide films so as to refine the fabrication process for power MEMS. It is shown that residual stress in oxide films strongly depended on thermal processing history. Dissolved gases were found to play an important role in governing intrinsic stress. The tendency to form cracks is a strong function of film thickness and annealing temperature. Mixed mode fracture mechanics was applied to predict critical cracking temperature, and there is a fairly good match between theoretical predictions and experimental observations.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 657: Symposia EE – Materials Science of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Devices III , 2000 , EE8.4
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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References

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