PRECISION ENGINEERING

BY
SMITA PADHAN
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
VEER SURRENDER SAI UNIVERSITY OF
TECHNOLOGY, BURLA - 768018
CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Precision Engineering
 Micromilling and Microdrilling
 Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)
 Microelectronics Fabrication Methods
INTRODUCTION
 Manufacturing is the process of making large quantities
of products by effectively utilizing the raw materials.
 The manufacturing process may produce discrete or
continuous products.
 The scope of manufacturing technology includes the
following broad topics:
 Precision engineering and ultra-precision engineering
 Micromanufacturing (Microelectronics and MEMS)
 Nanotechnology
Precision Engineering
 The technical field of precision engineering has expanded
over the past 25 years.
 In 1933, the Precision Engineering Society was established
in Japan and soon thereafter the activities were accelerated
due to new impetus from Europe.
 The first issue of the journal Precision Engineering
appeared in 1979 and the first academic program began in
1982 (Source: American Society of Precision Engineering
(ASPE).
 According to ASPE, “…precision engineering is dedicated
to the continual pursuit of the next decimal place.”
Precision Engineering cont..
 Precision engineering includes
• Controls
• Dimensional metrology and surface metrology
• Instrument/machine design
• Interferometry
• Materials and materials processing
• Precision optics
• Scanning microscopes
• Semiconductor processing
• Standards
Precision Engineering cont..
 The precision process is a concept of design, fabrication,
and testing where variations in product parameters are
caused by logical scientific occurrences.
 Identification of these logical phenomena and strategically
controlling them is very fundamental to precision
manufacturing.
 Frequently used terms within the domain of precision and
ultra-precision engineering are:
• Precision Processes
• Scaling
• Accuracy
• Resolution
• Repeatability
Micromilling
 The micromilling process is considered versatile and
facilitates creating three-dimensional miniaturized
structures.
 The process is characterized by milling tools that are
usually in the order of hundreds of micrometers in
diameter.
 These tools are designed by the use of focused-ion
beam machining process and are used in a specially
designed, high-precision milling machine.
Micromilling cont...
 The focused-ion beam machining process uses a sharp
tungsten needle wetted with gallium metal.
 The tip of the needle is subjected to a 5-10 kV (sometimes
higher) so as to enable the field ionization effect on the
gallium.
 The gallium ions are then accelerated by the use of another
energy source and focused into a spot of sub-micrometer
order.
 The kinetic energy acquired by the ions makes it possible to
eject the atoms from the workpiece. This is referred to as a
Sputtering Process.
Micromilling cont...
 The sputtering yield varies inversely with the strength of the
chemical bond in the materials.
 Either the movement of ions or the workpiece, depending upon
the environmental conditions, can be controlled to obtain a
wide variety of three-dimensional shapes and structures.
 The machining forces present in micromilling with tools of the
order of micrometer diameters are dominated by contact
pressure and friction between the tool cutting edges and the
workpiece.
 The micromilling process is applied for making micromolds
and masks to aid in the development of micro-components.
Microdrilling
 Microdrilling is characterized by the drilling of ultrafine holes using
a precision microdrilling instrument.
 The end of the microdrill is called the chisel edge, which is indeed
removed material cutting at a negative rake angle.
 Microdrills are made of either micrograin tungsten carbide or cobalt
steel.
 Some coarse microdrilling machines are available that drill holes
from the size of 0.03 mm to 0.50 mm in diameter, with increments of
0.01 mm.
 However, the present demand is for drills capable of drilling in the
order of micrometers.
Microdrilling cont...
 The most important parameters considered in microdrilling are:
accuracy, sensitivity, quality and affordability.
 Some of the applications of microdrilling are given below:
 Air bearings and bushings
 EDM tooling
 Electronic components
 Gas and liquid flow
 Microwave components
 Nozzles
 Optical component
Microelectromechanical Systems
(MEMS)
 In MEMS components are fabricated by batch manufacturing
methods similar to microelectronics techniques, which fulfills
the added advantage of miniaturization, performance and
integrability.
 The topical areas under MEMS are
 Micromachining methods
 Microsensors and actuators
 Magnetic MEMS,
 RF MEMS
 Microfluidics
 BioMEMS and MOEMS.
MEMS cont....
 The progress in microfabrication technologies is
transforming the field of solid-state into MEMS.
 Micromachining is a process for the fabrication of
MEMS devices and systems.
 Various energy transduction principles include thermal,
magnetic, optical, electrical and mechanical.
 These are employed in designing the microsensors and
actuators.
 Radio Frequency (RF) MEMS devices are mostly used in
the field of wireless communication.
MEMS cont....
 Microfluidic MEMS devices handle and control small
volumes of fluids in the order of nano and pico liter volumes.
One popular application is a micronozzle for use in printing
applications.
 MEMS technology has applications in the chemical industry,
which gives rise to BioMEMS products.
 Surgical instruments, artificial organs, genomics, and drug
discovery systems are based on BioMEMS products.
 MEMS devices have better response times, faster analysis and
diagnosis capabilities, better statistical results, and improved
automation possibilities with a decreased risk and cost.
Microelectronics Fabrication
 Micro devices can be integrated circuits, which are fabricated in submicron
dimensions and form the basis of all electronic products.
 Fabrication technology, starting from computer assisted off-line design to real
fabrication, deals with the processes for producing electronic circuits, solid
structures, printing circuits as well as various electronic components, sub-systems
and systems of subminiature size.
 The design of an IC with millions of transistors and even more interconnections is
not a trivial task. Before the real design is manufactured, the circuit is prepared
and tested by using EDA (electronic design automation) tools.
 These tools help in synthesizing and simulating the behavior of the desired circuit
by arranging the placement of transistors and interconnections within the chip
area.
 These computer-assisted tools can also verify and validate all defects and
conditions, respectively.
 The technology has been driven by the demands of the computer industry, space
technology, the car industry and telecommunications.
Steps in Fabrication
 The first step in fabrication is always the preparation of a set of
photographic masks. The mask represents the features of the
various elements and layers of the chip to be manufactured.
 This procedure is repeated several times to replicate the circuit. The
mask appears on the surface of a thin silicon crystal wafer.
 A single wafer can accommodate several identical chips. Hence, the
IC fabrication process is a batch-processing scheme.
 The preparation of masks can be carried out by the use of a
computer-controlled electron beam to expose the photographic
mask material in accordance with the desired configuration.
 The information is supplied to the computer in terms of a design
data file. Then three important fabrication sequences are followed
on the wafer surface. These are photography followed by chemical,
and thermal operations. This phase is called masking.
Steps in Fabrication cont.
 The mask features are transferred to the wafer by exposing a light-
sensitive photoresist coating through the transparent areas of the mask.
 The material areas of the wafer unprotected by the hardened photoresist
are then removed by etching.
 Etching techniques are characterized by their selectivity and degree of
anisotropy. Etching can be either physical or chemical, or a combination
of both.
 In order to develop active circuit elements such as transistors, n-type and
p-type impurities are doped. Two commonly used doping methods are
diffusion and ion implantation.
 Then a thin aluminum layer is deposited on the uppermost layers of the
chip in order to allow metal to contact the device elements. The aluminum
deposition is often achieved by using the chemical vapor deposition
(CVD) method.
Steps in Fabrication cont.
Classification of Fabrication
 The term micromachining refers to the fabrication of
micromechanical structures with the aid of etching techniques
to remove part of the substrate or a thin film (Petersen, 1982).
 The fabrication processes fall into the two general categories:
1. Bulk micromachining
2. Surface micromachining
Bulk micromachining
 Bulk micromachining uses the bulk material or substrate to
form microstructures by etching directly into the bulk
material.
 Bulk micromachining refers to etching through the wafer
from the backside in order to form the desired structures.
 The structures are formed by wet chemical etching or by
reactive ion etching (RIE).
 Usually, suspended microstructures are fabricated using wet
chemical micromachining.
Bulk micromachining cont.
Advantage of Bulk micromachining :
 The advantage of bulk micromachining and chemical etching is that
substrate materials such as quartz and single crystal silicon are
readily available and reasonably high aspect-ratio structures can be
fabricated.
 It is also compatible to IC technologies, so electronics can be easily
integrated.
Disadvantage of Bulk micromachining :
 It include pattern and structure sensitivity and pattern distortion due
to different selective etch rates on different crystallographic planes
(Bean 1978; Kern 1990; Danel and Delapierre 1991).
 Further, since both the front side and backside are used for
processing, severe limits and constraints are encountered on the
minimum feature size and minimum feature spacing.
Surface Micromachining
 Surface micromachining is a process of fabrication of MEMS
structures out of deposited thin films. The process is also employed
for IC fabrication.
 It involves the formation of mechanical structures in thin films
formed on the surface of the wafer.
 The thin film is primarily composed of three layers: low-pressure
chemical vapor-deposition polycrystalline silicon, silicon nitride,
and silicon dioxides.
 They are deposited in sequence and subsequently selectively
removed to build up a three-dimensional mechanical structure
integrated with the electronics.
 The structure is essentially freed from the planar substrate.
Surface Micromachining cont…
 Issues are to be dealt with cautiously during surface
micromachining:
 Basic understanding and control of the material properties of
thin films
 Fabrication features for hinged structures and high-aspect ratio
devices
 Releasing method for the microstructure
 Packaging methods
 Micromachining, using doped or undoped polysilicon as the
structural material and silicon dioxide as the sacrificial material, is
the most frequently used. Silicon nitride is used as an insulator.
Hydrofluoric acid is used to dissolve the sacrificial oxide during
release.
Surface Micromachining cont…
 Primarily, the fabrication process involves the following
steps:
 Substrate passivation and interconnection
 Sacrificial layer deposition and patterning
 Structural polysilicon deposition and doping
 Microstructure release, rinse, and dry
 Some of the examples of polysilicon micromechanical
devices are flexible suspensions, gear trains, turbines, cranks,
tweezers, and linkages, which have already been fabricated on
silicon.
 Microelectromechanical systems
( MEMS)
 A technology that considers microscale sensors,
actuators, valves, gears, and mirrors embedded in
semiconductor chips is referred to as micro-electro-
mechanical systems( MEMS).
 In essence, MEMS are small, integrated devices that
combine electronics, electrical as well as mechanical
elements on a common silicon substrate through micro
fabrication and micromachining technology.
MEMS Introduction
 Made up of components between 1-100 micrometers in
size.
 Devices vary from below one micron up to several mm.
 Functional elements of MEMS are miniaturized
structures, sensors, actuators, and microelectronics
 MEMS add passive elements such as capacitors and
inductors including mechanical elements such as
springs, gears, beams, flexures, diaphragms, etc.
 One main criterion of MEMS is that there are at least
some elements that have mechanical functionality,
whether or not they can move
Components of MEMS
Microelectronics:
 “brain” that receives, processes, and makes decisions
 data comes from microsensors
Microsensors:
 constantly gather data from environment
 pass data to microelectronics for processing
 can monitor mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical optical, and
magnetic readings
Microactuator:
 acts as trigger to activate external device
 microelectronics will tell microactuator to activate device
Microstructures:
 extremely small structures built onto surface of chip
 built right into silicon of MEMS
Driving Principles for Actuation
 The driving principles used to drive various types of
micromachined MEMS systems are primarily four
types, namely, Typical power requirements for respective driving
 Electrostatic drive principles

 Magnetic drive
 Piezoelectric drive
 Electrothermal drive
 Each driving principle has specific advantages and
disadvantages with respect to deflection range, required
force, environmental durability, and most
importantlythe response time.
Actuation Methods
Electrostatic drive:
 It is based on electrostatic forces between the microelectrodes.
 W hen an external voltage is applied between the electrodes, a
potential energy is stored which enables the actuation.
 The electrostatic forces act perpendicular to the parallel electrode.

Electromagnetic actuation :
 It is primarily a current controlled process. The driving mechanism
again requires currents of the order of several hundreds of
milliamps, and voltages in the range of less than one volt.
Magnetic drive:
 It is an attractive driving principle and very suitable for
applications like dustfilled environments and in environments
where low driving voltages are acceptable or desired.
Actuation Methods
Piezoelectric driving:
 It is based on the material properties of crystals,
ceramics, polymers, and liquid crystals. In a
piezoelectric material, the internal dielectric
displacement is developed via an applied electric field
and mechanical stress.
Electrothermal:
 Electrothermal devices use electrically generated heat
as an energy source for actuation.
 The electrothermal effects can be divided into three
different categories: shape memory alloys,
electrothermal bimorphs, and thermopneumatic
actuators.
Fabrication Processes
Deposition :
 It deposit thin film of material (mask) anywhere between a
few nm to 100 micrometers onto substrate
1. Physical: material placed onto substrate, techniques
include sputtering and evaporation
2. Chemical: stream of source gas reacts on substrate to
grow product, techniques include chemical vapor
deposition and atomic layer deposition
 Substrates: silicon, glass, quartz
 Thin films: polysilicon,

silicon dioxide, silicon nitride,

metals, polymers
Fabrication Processes cont..
Patterning:
 Transfer of a pattern into a material after deposition in order to
prepare for etching
 Techniques include commonly some type of lithography,
photolithography .

Etching:
Wet etching: Dipping substrate into chemical solution that selectively
removes material . This Process provides good selectivity, etching
rate of target material higher that mask material
Dry etching: Material sputtered or dissolved from substrate with plasma
or gas variations
Choosing a method: desired shapes, etch depth and uniformity,
surface roughness, process compatibility, safety, cost,
availability, environmental impact
Fabrication Methods
Bulk Micromachining:
 Oldest micromachining technology
 Technique involves selective removal of substrate to produce
mechanical components
 Accomplished by physical or chemical process with chemical
being used more for MEMS production
 Chemical wet etching is popular because of high etch rate and
selectivity
 Isotropic Wet Etching: etch rate not dependent on
crystallographic orientation of substrate and etching moves at
equal rates in all directions
 Anisotropic Wet Etching: etch rate is dependent on
crystallographic orientation of substrate
Fabrication Methods cont..
Surface micromachining:
 Process starts with deposition of thin-film that acts as a temporary
mechanical layer (sacrificial layer)
 Device layers are constructed on top
 Deposition and patterning of structural layer
 Removal of temporary layer to allow movement of structural layer
Benefits:
 Variety of structure, sacrificial and etchant combinations, uses
single-sided wafer processing
 Allows higher integration density and lower resultant per die cost
compared to bulk micromachining
Disadvantages:
 Mechanical properties of most thin-films are usually unknown
and reproducibility of their mechanical properties
Fabrication Methods cont..
The surface micromachining sequences are as follows:
 Wafer cleaning
 Blanket n+ diffusion of Si substrate
 Passivation layer formation
 Opening up of the passivation layer for contacts
 Stripping of resist in piranha
 Removal of thin oxide through BHF etchant systems
 Deposition of a base, spacer or sacrificial layer using phosphosilicate glass
(PSG)
 Densification at 950°C for 30-60 min in wet oxygen
 Base window etching in BHF for anchors
 Deposition of structural material deposition (e.g., poly-Si using CVD
method at about 600°C, 100 Pa and 125 sccm at about 150 Å/min)
 Anneal of the poly-Si at 1050°C for 1 hour to reduce stress in the structure
 Doping: in-situ, PSG sandwich and ion implantation
 Release step, selective etching of spacer layer.
Fabrication Methods cont..
Fabrication Methods cont..
Micromolding process:
 It involves use of molds to define the deposition of the structural layer.
 In this case, the structural material is deposited only in those areas
constituting the microdevice structure.
 Feature blanket deposition of the structural material followed by
etching to realize the final device geometry is done in one step.
 Once the structural layer deposition is over the mold is dissolved by
using a chemical etchant. Note that the etchant does not corrugate the
structural material.
 One of the most widely used micromolding processes is the LIGA
process.
 LIGA is a German acronym standing for lithographie,
galvanoformung and abformung, or lithography, electroplating, and
molding.
 Photosensitive polyimides are mostly used for fabricating plating
molds.
Merits and Demerits of MEMS
Merits:
 Much smaller area
 Cheaper than alternatives
e.g. In medical market( disposable)
 Can be integrated with electronics (system on one chip)
 Speed:
 Lower thermal time constant
 Rapid response times(high frequency)
 Power consumption:
 low actuation energy
 low heating power
Demerits:
 Imperfect fabrication techniques
 Difficult to design on micro scales
Thank you!!!!!