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This paper investigates novel isolation and patterning schemes to increase the sensitivity of a capacitive humidity sensor based on a polyimide sensitive layer. Optimum sensitivity of 23% using aluminum interdigitated electrodes with fingers of 1 p m width separated by 1 pm. A mathematical model was developed to optimize the sensitivity regarding water absorption factor, electrodes design and ratio between active and parasitic capacitances.
This paper investigates novel isolation and patterning schemes to increase the sensitivity of a capacitive humidity sensor based on a polyimide sensitive layer. Optimum sensitivity of 23% using aluminum interdigitated electrodes with fingers of 1 p m width separated by 1 pm. A mathematical model was developed to optimize the sensitivity regarding water absorption factor, electrodes design and ratio between active and parasitic capacitances.
This paper investigates novel isolation and patterning schemes to increase the sensitivity of a capacitive humidity sensor based on a polyimide sensitive layer. Optimum sensitivity of 23% using aluminum interdigitated electrodes with fingers of 1 p m width separated by 1 pm. A mathematical model was developed to optimize the sensitivity regarding water absorption factor, electrodes design and ratio between active and parasitic capacitances.
High-Sensitivity Capacitive Humidity Sensor Using 3-Layer
Patterned Polyimide Sensing Film
J. Laconte, V. Wilmart, D. Flandre, J.-P. Raskin Research center in micro and nanoscopic electronics devices and materials (CeRMIN) Universite catholique de Louvain Microelectronics Laboratory, Microwave Laboratory 3, Place du Levant B-1348 Louvain-La-Neuve (Belgium) jlaconte@dice.ucl.ac.be; flandre@dice.ucl.ac.be; raskin@emic.ucl.ac.be Abstract This paper investigates novel isolation and patterning schemes to increase the sensitivity of a capacitive humidity sensor based on a polyimide sensitive layer. We obtained an optimum sensitivity of 23% using aluminum interdigitated electrodes with fingers of 1 p m width separated by 1 pm, deposited on a first insulating polyimide layer and covered by two more polyimide layers whose upper one features a regular array, of holes to increase the active surface area. A mathematical model was developed to optimize the sensitivity regarding water absorption factor, electrodes design and ratio between active and parasitic capacitances. The process was optimized to be fully compatible with usual CMOS-IC processes in order tofinally be able to fabricate a humidity smart sensor. Keywords Capacitive humidity sensors, polyimide, interdigitated electrodes, CMOS-compatibility. INTRODUCTION In order to introduce the automatic control of humidity in OUT daily life to make living and working environments more comfortable, low cost mass-production humidity sensors are required. Among several types of humidity sensors already developed, the capacitive sensor is preferred because of its linear sensitivity in a wide range of relative humidity. The principle of this kind of sensor lies in the increase of the apparent dielectric permittivity of a sensitive layer due to moisture absorption [l]. Polyimide is a polymer particularly suitable as humidity sensitive layer thanks to its full compatibility with integrated circuit process, its great chemical stability, and its high permeability to water. In addition, most of new polyimides are also very easy to coat and pattern thanks to their photosensibility properties. Good mechanical properties such as high elasticity and low thermal dilatation coefficient can also he mentioned [21. In this study, we demonstrate how to modify the design and fabrication parameters of the interdigitated electrode fingers, the insulation layer between the electrodes and the substrate, and the sensitive layer of a classical capacitive- type humidity sensor in order to improve its humidity sensitivity and its integration into a standard CMOS-IC process. Figure 1. Encapsulated humidity sensor on polyimide using 2 polyimide sensitive layers. DESIGN STRATEGY Sensi t i ve layer The major challenge of our design is to optimize the sensitivity to humidity. Low sensitivity can be expected for classical capacitive type sensors. The capacitance ratio between wet and dry environment is equal to the dielectric constants ratio (Eq. 1) in case of staked capacitors. We can use this equation in first approximation. Eq. 1 The dielectric constant of dry polyimide (&dr y) is equal to 3.2 [2]. Empirical Looyenga [I ] formula can be used to calculate with =78 (Eq. 2): 0-7803-81 33-5/03/$17.00 02003 i EEE 372 1 I l 3 Eq. 2 where the y factor is the fractional volume of water absorbed in the polyimide film. This factor depends on polyimide type. To increase the capacitance ratio of Eq. 1, we selected a polyimide with a high water absorption factor: Pyralin PI2723 from HDMicrosystems ( y =4.2% at 100% RH, Relative Humidity). With this polyimide, E varies from 3.2 (= at 0% RH) to 4 (=&,+e, at 100% RH). Sensitivity to relative humidity can therefore be expressed by Eq. 3 where AC is the capacitance variation between dry (Cdr y) and wet ( C , ) polyimide, E , , ~ and represent respectively permittivity of dry and wet polyimide and ARH is the interval of RH variation. Ea. 3 A maximum sensitivity of 25% can be expected in this first approximation of stacked capacitor. Practically, as it will be seen further, this value is more critical in case of interdigitated electrodes due to the parasitic capacitances. These must be reduced to improve the sensitivity. On an other hand, water absorption factor can be increased as proposed by [4-5-61 using a plasma etching on the sensitive layer surface. We studied an alternative solution, better controlled and more reproducible. To increase the active surface area in contact with the ambient humidity, we imagined to coat a second polyimide layer patterned with holes on top of the first one. EIectrodes desi gn [7] shows that a polyimide thickness h equal to (Wgap + Wfingers) practically contains all electrical field lines (Figure 2).. This result was confirmed by our finite elements simulation (ATLAS tool). Figure 3 shows the simulated capacitance variation vs. polyimide thickness reported to the sum W,, +W,,,,$. Maximum capacitance is reached when h 2 W,, +W,,,,s. This result is the same whether the total width W,, +W,,,,s is equal to 1 or 3 pm. Figure 2. Schematic of sensor and notations. In addition, as calculated in [3], the thickness of polyimide must be minimized to have faster sensor response. I 01 (I Nwpaprwfinperj Figure 3. Atlas simulated capacitance variation vs. polyimide thickness reported to (W- +W,,,,) far total width W,,=Ww+W,,, equal t o 1 and 3 pm. Polyimide thickness was therefore chosen equal to W,, + W,,,, and W,, +W,,,,3 as small as possible according to photolithography. Rati o bet ween parasi ti c and act i ve capaci tances The parasitic capacitances which appear between the interdigitated electrodes outside the polyimide film affect the output signal but are independent on humidity (Figure 4). Decreasing these parasitic capacitances is critical to improve the sensor sensitivity because of the rather low variation of active capacitance with humidity. A mathematical model was developed to calculate theratio between parasitic and active capacitances in case of a squared sensor with a constant total area, a given insulator thickness, a polyimide thickness sufficient to contain all field lines and a given Wj nRe,f l Rap ratio. From [7] we can expect that the ratio W,adw,.,,,s has no impact on the active capacitance if h >W,, +WfinR,,s, It was therefore fixed equal to 1 to ease the design. 373 I I " i I the electrical field lines passing through the polyimide layer (of thickness fp,). where hj i ngLrs =fingers height Figure 4. Schematic of all capacitances measured between fingers at 100 kHr with grounded substrate. Working around 100 kHz with the substrate grounded (see next part), the parasitic capacitance can be approximated by 2 capacitances in parallel (Eq. 4). At this frequency, the substrate is in deep depletion and the interface between depleted silicon and substrate is quasi grounded. Cpnrasi t i c =C I +C 2 Eq. 4 CI (Eq. 5 ) is the capacitance related to the electrical field lines passing through the insulator layer. Eq. 5 where n =fingers number; L = fingers length and sensor width, =permittivity of the insulator layer; a= proportionality factor optimized by simulation expressing the repartition of electrical field lines between the layers and fiN =thickness of insulator layer. C, (Eq. 6) is the capacitance related to the electrical field lines passing the silicon depletion region. The graphic of Figure 5 depicts the results of this mathematical model. It appears that the ratio between parasitic and active capacitances increases as the finger width decreases. 1 pm is the smallest width we can obtain with our photolithography. W,, and Wfi.,,,s were therefore chosen larger or equal to 1 pm. Finge,n*ldth ,m*mlu, Figure 5. Simulations results of estimated capacitance vs. fingers width for a squared 500x500pm2 sensor, W-/W,.w. =1; 4 pm polyimide as sensitive layer and 400 nm thick oxide as insulator. It also appears from Eq. 7 that the active capacitance increases with the number of fingers and the fingers length, in other words, with the sensor size. But the size is limited by the goal of miniaturization and also by fabrication process restrictions. Too long thin lines may not adhere enough on insulator layer. Figure 6 gives information about the sensitivity expected for this kind of interdigitated capacitive sensors. The two Cz = [ a( L, t i m + ~ ~ ) - a ( ~ , t i n r ) ] c>-. / . n , . curves show capacitance value without humidity (eps =3.2) and in presence of 100% humidity (eps =4). The decrease of sensitivity with the increaseof the fingers width is clearly demonstrated. "72 + Ld2 Eq. 6 where xd is the depleted region thickness (equal to X h ) The active capacitance (Eq. 7) can be calculated as the capacitance between two parallel aluminum lines related to 374 Figure 6. Simulation results of total estimated Capacitance at 0% RH (eps13.2) and 100% RH (eps=4) vs. fingers width for a squared 500x500pm2 sensor, Wfl,.,= 1; 4 pm polyimide as sensitive layer and 400 nm thick oxide as insulator. Regarding the lower insulating layer, thick thermal Si02 ( 4 0 0 ~ 1 ) is usually used to decrease the parasitic capacitance to the substrate. We investigated an other solution, replacing oxide by polyimide which has lower permittivity and which can be deposited in higher thickness. Simulations were made using a 3 pm thick polyimide as insulator to compare the sensitivity we can expect in both case. Figure 7. Simulation of the capacitance variation between wet (eps=4) and dry (epsz3.2) polyimide VI. fingers width using 400 nm oxide (- -) and 3 pm polyimide (-) as insulator for a squared 50Ox500pm2 sensor, WWp,,-.= l and 4 pm polyimide as sensitive layer. Figure 7 shows the AC difference when oxide or polyimide is used as insulator. A higher range between wet and dry capacitance can be observed using polyimide to isolate the electrodes from the substrate. A higher sensitivity could be therefore expected in this case. Remove substrate by silicon etching in post process to isolate the sensor on membrane was also investigated but not conclusive to date [8]. EXPERIMENTAL The chosen polyimide (PI2723) is a negative photosensitive polymer which permits thick layers from 2 to 6 pm depending on the spin coating speed. Experiments were made to optimize exposure, development and bake time in order to improve resolution [Z]. Figure 8 describes the fabrication of the sensor type using 3 layers of polyimide: the lower to isolate electrodes from substrate, the second as passivation layer and the upper with hole pattern (Figure 8). Firstly, a 3 pm thick polyimide was spin coated on substrate (Figure S(a)) and polymerized by baking at 450C to obtain the optimum electrical properties [2]. 1 pm thick aluminum layer was then sputtered at 150C and patterned by plasma (Figure S(b)). Thanks to a good selectivity between the CCI&l2 plasma and polyimide, no special care bas to be taken to etch aluminum. But the photoresist release was critical due to the bad selectivity between photoresist and polyimide when using usual chemistry. Tests showed that boiling acetone removes polyinude. D SILICON (4 (b) photoresist without damaging Figure 0. Schematic process flow using polyimide as insulator. Aluminum was also deposited on backside (Figure S(c)) to bias the substrate for minimizing the depletion capacitance. The next step was the deposition of a first 2pm thick sensitive polyimide layer, its definition of sensitive area and baking at 350C for polymerization (Figure 8(d)). A very 375 good adhesion was observed between the two first layers. Finally, the last 2 pm thick polyimide layer was coated and patterned by photolithography with holes to maximize the exchange surface area (Figure 8(e) and 9). Aspect ratio equal to 1 of pattemed holes in polyimide was observed. Holes of 2 pm width separated by 30 pm were therefore obtained after optimization of the couple exposure - development time. Figure 9. Encapsulated humidity sensor i n details. A cross section in the middle of the interdigitated electrodes array can be seen on Figure 10. Figure 10. Cross section of 5 interdigitated electrode fingers between 3 pm of insulating polyimide (on silicon substrate) and 4 pm of sensitive polyimlde. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS As it can be seen in Figure 1 or 9, four metallic contacts were used to apply AC current and measure the resulting AC voltage independently on series resistances. Measurements were performed at 100 kHz and 50 mV. Frequency sweep measurements showed better reproducibility and sensitivity at this chosen frequency (Figure 11). - f" ,,dth-l.lpm 0 Em I m I m S m * w r w a r u r I m 4 n r a FWW imzi Figure 11. Measurements of AC variation vs. frequency. Calibration structures (short and open circuits) have been used to extract all external access and parasitic capacitances from the measurements. Measurements were performed at constant temperature (25C) in the climatic chamber to avoid any temperature influence. Humidity variation at ambient temperature represents a more expected case in current life. 8.1 - 5.0 . 5.8 . w m 80 71 80 00 lm RH 1911 Figure 12. Capacitance variation vs. relative humidity for 500x500 pm2 sensor, W,,, =1 pm, 3 pm thick polyimide as insulator, 2 polyimide sensitive layers. Figure 12 shows the linear capacitance variation with RH. A comparison between measured values and simulations can be seen in Figure 13. The graphic conf m the good agreement between our analytical model and results obtained with finite elements tools. The small shift between measurements and simulations values is due to an overestimation of parasitic capacitances in the theoretical model. 376 I 0 6 I S 2.5 Fins- *Id* lmuDral Figure 13. Comparison between analytical, finite elements simulations and measurements values for 500x500 pm2 sensor, 3 pm thick polyimide layer as insulator, 2 polyimide sensitlve layers, at ambient humidity. In Figure 14, a comparison is made between the 3 studied configurations and shows the important sensitivity gain using polyimide as insulator with the substrate until a maximum of 23% with fingers 1 pm width. 2s I & + 0 5 1 5 2 5 35 Fl"g.. xldm 1mism-1 Figure 14. Sensitivity to humidity vs. fingers width for 500x500 pmz sensor; oxide-400 nm, Poly1 =3 pm, Pol y2~2 pm and Poly3=2 pm. CONCLUSIONS We demonstrated that a novel capacitive-type humidity sensor, using polyimide as insulator between our interdigitaded electrodes and the substrate and a second patterned sensitive layer, increases the sensitivity to RH by at least 7% in comparison with classical design. The fabrication of this sensor is easy, low cost and fully compatible with usual CMOS-IC processes on the contrary to most designs based on planar capacitor while providing state-of-the art sensitivity values [9-10]. We expect a further increase of sensitivity when decreasing more the parasitic capacitance and increasing water absorption factor. Improvements are still in progress as well as a joint integration of such sensor with its close CMOS electronics on SO1 (Silicon on Insulator) substrate in order to finally obtain a humidity smart sensor. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to thank the PCIM Laboratory, Universitk catholique de Louvain, Belgium, for providing the climatic chamber and in particular M. Sinaeve for its maintenance. REFERENCES [ I ] H. Shibata et al., A digital Hygrometer Using a Polyimide Film Relative Humidity Sensor, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Vol. 45, No. 2, April 1996. [ 2] HDMicrosystems, Pyralin PI2720 Processing Guidelines. [3] D. Denton et al., Moisture diffusion in polyimidefilms in integrated circuits, J ournal of electronic materials, Vol. 14, No. 2,1985. C. 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