Design & Fabrication of

MEMS GYROSCOPE
Abhishek Garg (10020) Sanjeev Kumar (10645) Shobhit Yadav (10695) Guided by : Prof. N S Vyas Dept. of Mechanical Engineering IIT Kanpur

MEMS Devices Introduction

MEMS are devices and systems integrated with mechanical elements, sensors, actuators and electronic circuits on a common silicon substrate through micro fabrication technology. Size of components vary between 1-1000 m. MEMS emerged with development of IC fabrication. MEMS devices are manufactured by using batch fabrication techniques. Uses:- Navigation; Flight stabilization of aircrafts and rockets; military application include use in missiles, barrage rounds and hypersonic projectiles; automotive application.

Gyroscopes
Gyroscope is a device used for measuring and maintaining orientation and works on the principle of angular momentum. Working :- The device consists of a spinning wheel or a disc whose axle is free to take any orientation and this orientation changes much less in response to a given external torque. Since the external torque is minimized by mounting the device in gimbals, its orientation remains nearly fixed, regardless of any

motion of the platform on which it is mounting. The traditional gyroscope

derives its precision from the large angular momentum that is proportional to the heavy mass of the flywheel, its substantial size and its high rate of spin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cquvA_IpEsA

MEMS Gyroscope
MEMS gyroscope is based on Coriolis force which is induced in it due to the combination of vibration of a proof mass and an orthogonal angular rate input. The proof mass is generally suspended above the substrate by a suspension system consisting of flexible beams and overall dynamic system can be realized as a 2 degrees of freedom mass spring damper system. Prior works on MEMS gyroscope:- Tuning fork gyroscopes, torsional gyroscopes, ring gyroscopes, piezoelectric vibrating gyroscopes and clover leaf gyroscope. Application:- Spacecraft orientation, automotive sensors, image stabilization

systems on video and still cameras employ vibrating structure gyroscopes,

vibrating structure gyroscopes are used in radio controlled helicopters to help keep the tail steady during take off.

Dynamics and design aspects of MEMS Gyroscope

The most basic visualization of a MEMS gyroscope is a single proof mass suspended above a substrate. The proof mass is free to oscillate in two perpendicular direction the drive and sense direction.

 When gyroscope is subjected to an angular rotation a Coriolis force having a frequency same as drive mode oscillation is generated in the sense

mode direction. This force excite the sense mode accelerometer causing
the proof mass to respond in the sense direction. Equations of motion can be expressed as :-

+ + =
+ + = 2

(1)
(2)

The resonant frequency of the sense mode accelerometer is designed closed to the frequency of the coriolis force. Then the coriolis force excites the system into resonance in the sense direction.

Drive mode operation :- The drive mode oscillator is a 1 DOF resonator, which can be modelled as a mass-spring-damper system consisting of the drive proof-mass , drive mode suspension system providing the drive stiffness and the drive damping consisting of viscous and thermal elastic damping. + + = sin t = 0 sin( + ) (3) (4)

by solving (3) and (4), we get

0 =

(5)
+

2 2

 Q 1 ( dd ) where = d = tan 1( ) d At resonance = , =

,

and = =

( )

Sense mode operation :- It is also 1 DOF resonator.

( )

+(

(6)

= (
If = and =

+ ) where =

to achieve the maximum possible gain in sense mode it is generally desirable to operate at or near the peak of sense mode response curve i.e. = . Note:- the sense mode phase becomes -900 from the drive velocity

Phase relations
The sense mode position phase depends on the drive and sense frequency separation ( f ) and damping. The drive mode oscillator is usually operated at resonance and drive mode position phase is -900 relative to the applied drive signal. from equation () = 0 sin( + ), () = 0 sin( + ),

With the phase

+ = ( ) where f = + when drive and sense modes are matched, i.e. f = 0, the sense mode phase becomes = .

Design Aspects
Linear suspension system :- The flexure system that suspends the proof mass above the substrate consists of thin flexible beams. Common suspension structures include crab-leg suspensions, serpentine suspensions, hair-pin suspensions, H-type suspensions and U-beam suspensions. The same beams experience deflections in both modes, resulting in undesired coupling between the drive and sense modes. A solution to this problem is to

use a decoupling frame.

Linear flexure elements :- Suspension systems utilize narrow beams as the primary flexure elements, aligning the narrow dimension of the beam normal to the motion axis. Folded U-beam is two fixed guided beams connected in series. It eliminates the non linearity and axial loading limitation of single fixed guided beams. A double folded beams is formed by connecting two U-beams in parallel.

 Electrical design of MEMS gyroscope (Actuation and detection mechanisms): In many MEMS applications, capacitive detection and electrostatic actuation is mostly used because they provide good DC response, noise performance, high sensitivity, low drift and low temperature sensitivity. Electrostatic Actuation :- Actuation and sensing electrodes are modelled as a combination of moving parallel-plate capacitors. capacitance 0 =

electrostatic force =

The electrostatic force is expressed as the gradient of energy stored in capacitor.

 Variable gap actuation :- Two plates of the parallel plate capacitor are movable in the normal direction. =

The electrostatic spring constant due to force non-linearity is -

The electrostatic spring constant of parallel-plates is a negative spring constant, and always reduces the resonant frequency with increasing net DC bias across the electrodes. Variable area actuation :- Two plates of the parallel plate capacitor are movable in the lateral direction. =

Since the force is independent of the initial overlap length, a good practice in comb-drive design is to keep the overlap length minimum, while greater than the expected actuation peak amplitude.

 Balanced actuation-push-pull driving :- When a sinusoidal net actuation force is

desired the drive force can be linearized with respect to actuation voltages by
appropriate selection of voltages applied to opposite electrode sets. The net electrostatic force generated by two opposing capacitors 1 2 is =

A balanced actuation scheme is a common method to linearize the force with respect to a constant biased voltage and time varying voltage

= +
=

Comb drive actuator :- Since comb drive force in the x-direction is not a function of displacement in the x-direction its partial derivative with respect to x is zero which means that comb drive do not result in negative electrostatic spring constant.

 Comb drive actuators make use of lateral electrostatic driving force to activate
the movable mass. Effect of normal force is eliminated by arranging stationary electrodes symmetrically on both sides of each movable comb finger. Lateral driving force from both side electrode which are same in direction and equal in magnitude will not cancel out but the normal driving forces which are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction cancel out each other. Movable fingers are activated in horizontal direction only.

For a comb drive structure with N fingers on each side, structural thickness t
and finger distance d =

For a parallel plate actuator structure with N plates on each side, thickness t, overlap length l and plate gap d =

 Capacitive Sensing :- A change in gap distance d and overlap area S will cause a change in capacitance and by measuring this change we know the value of

displacement in respective direction.

Variable gap capacitive sensing :- Displacement in the motion direction is y and assuming y<<0 , the capacitance change with an overlap length 0

becomes
=
+

They are used for detection of small displacement. Variable area capacitive sensing :- They are used when the deflections are larger than minimum gap or when variable gap capacitance become nonlinear. =
( )

where x is displacement

 Differential Sensing :- It is employed to linearize the capacitive change with deflection.

= =

( ( +

) )

The differential capacitance change is = =

Damping
Damping is the energy dissipation effect in an oscillatory system
Viscous damping :- is the viscous effects of the gas trapped between the proof mass surfaces and the stationary surfaces.

Slide-film Air damping :-occurs when two plates of an area A, separated by a

distance 0 , slide parallel to each other. Squeeze-film Air damping :- occurs when two parallel plates move towards

each other and squeeze the fluid filled in between.

Structural damping :- It includes thermoelastic damping (TED), electronics damping, damping due to anchor and material type and other damping

effects.

Proposed Design
Design constraints :- Resonant frequencies should lie in the range 3-10 kHz, as ambient noises and vibration lie in the range 1-3 kHz and sensitivity of

gyroscope is inversely proportional to the operating frequency.

Coupling between drive and sense motion should be minimum, damping should be low, device thickness should not increase 10 m and no feature size

should be less than 3 m and gap between any two feature should not be less
than 3 m. Proposed design :- The design comb driving plate differential capacitance sensing vibratory gyroscope. The device can be fabricated through bulk micromachining process and DRIE (deep reactive ion etching) technique can be used for comb finger etching. The device is based on glass-silicon compound structure through silicon-glass anodic bonding technique.

Proposed structure: 1. Glass substrate 2. Anchors 3. Fixed driving fingers 4. Movable driving fingers 5. Folded driving beams 6. Folded sensing beams 7. Decoupling frame 8. Central movable mass 9. Bonding anchors

 Features :-

The folded beam structures in driving portion and sensing portion increases
the amplitude driving and sensing vibration which helps in increasing the device sensitivity. Decoupling frame weakens the coupling between two bonds . Due to insulating substrate the parasitic capacitances are less which is helpful for signal detection.

Using single piece silicon crystal as structure helps to achieve high quality
factor for both driving and sensing modes, also there is no residual stresses. Variable area actuators are used for driving the structure and variable gap

sensing mechanism is used for sensing.

The device uses differential capacitance sensing instead of sensing the single capacitance change as it can further cancel the environment noise and improve

the device capacitance sensitivity.

 Working principle :-

AC driving voltage with same magnitude but 1800 phase difference are applied to the left and right fixed driving fingers which introduces alternating electrostatic forces on the movable driving fingers along x-direction. The frame along with central mass will vibrate along x-direction in a push-pull

mode, which is driving mode.

The frequency of the driving voltage is chosen to match the resonant frequency of the truss and central mass structure to achieve large vibration amplitude. Central mass experiences an alternating coriolis force along y-direction. The central movable mass will be activated along y-direction (sensing mode). The sensing differential pair will change due to sensing vibration. By measuring this differential capacitance change the value of angular velocity can be known.

 Design Parameters :DESIGN PARAMETERS

Device thickness Driving beam width Sensing beam width Central mass width Comb finger width Driving capacitance gap Sensing capacitance gap Frame horizontal arms

VALUES
10 m 5 m 5 m 400 m 4 m 3 m 3 m 900*60 m

DESIGN PARAMETERS
Driving beam length Sensing beam length Central mass length Comb finger length Total number of finger pairs Finger overlapping length Sense electrode length Frame vertical arms

VALUES
285 m 310 m 400 m 40 m 35 20 m 350 m 1000*30m

Device dimension including anchors = 1.42 mm * 1.12 mm

 Mathematical Model Analysis : Resonant frequency :- =

Total spring constant in driving direction ( ) = 18.33

Total spring constant in sensing direction ( ) = 14.09

Total driving mass ( ) = 2 108 Total sense mass ( ) = 1.5 108 Resonant frequency of drive mode ( ) = 4818 Resonant frequency of sense mode ( ) = 4877 Electrostatic tuning :-

should be equal to for large sensing amplitude hence a DC biasing voltage is used to tune down in differential capacitance sensing to precisely match . This technique is called electrostatic tuning.

 We apply a DC biasing voltage between top and bottom frequency tuning electrodes. =
( )

( ++)

(+)

if k the effective resonance frequency in sensing mode after electrostatic tuning can be expressed as =
+

= (

= =

2 3

Biasing voltage can be calculated by using above equation and using the values
= 8

 Damping Analysis : Damping coefficient =

( = 17.8 106 . )

Using the design parameters and viscosity coefficient

= .

= .

Damping ratios

= 3.96 103

= 126
The damping ratio for both the modes meet the requirement of light damping ( < 0.7).

Dynamic Analysis : Drive displacement :The main design criterion is that we want approximately 2.5 micron drive displacement. Using force equation for comb drive and design parameters = .

. .

For = 2.5
= for = (atmospheric conditions) = . for = 000 (vacuum conditions)

Sense displacement :Using design parameters frequency values and drive displacement for = / , = . = . for = (vacuum conditions) = . for = (atmospheric conditions)

Sensitivity Analysis : Displacement sensitivity :- The gyroscope displacement sensitivity is defined as sensing vibration amplitude of the central mass in response to unit angular velocity =

 When = , =

= . nm/(/sec) for = 126 (atmospheric conditions)

= nm/(/sec) for = 1000

Capacitive Sensing :-

(vacuum conditions)

The capacitance sensitivity of gyroscope can be expressed as

using design parameters =

Using these values

= . /(/sec) for Q = 126 (atmospheric conditions)

= . /(/sec) for Q = 1000 (vacuum conditions)

Fabrication
MEMS process flows can be classified into two primary categories: bulk
micro-machining and surface micro-machining. Bulk micro machining means that three dimensional features are etched into the bulk of the crystalline and

non-crystalline materials. In surface micro machining features are built up

layer by layer on the substrate. The MEMS vibratory gyroscope proposed here is a bulk micro machining

gyroscope.
MEMS fabrication consists of following steps : Oxidation :- This process involves the deposition of Si2 layer on the top of a

silicon substrate. 2 formed is used as a common insulating layer, as a mask

and as a sacrificial material. 2 performs as a mask against diffusion of the common dopants in silicon.

 Doping :- The two means of doping silicon are diffusion and ion-implantation.
Diffusion is a method of introducing impurities into the silicon wafer. The dopants used are boron (p-type) and phosphorus (n-type). The rate of diffusion is a function of temperature. Photolithography :- It is a method of transferring patterns to the surface of silicon wafers. Components involved are : Mask :- It is a stencil used to generate a desired pattern on photoresist coated wafers. It is a optically flat glass (transparent to near UV) or

quartz plate(transparent to deep UV) with an

absorber pattern metal (opaque to UV light). Photoresist :- These are organic polymers

sensitive to UV radiation.

 When UV light falls on it their solubility gets altered. There are of two types negative and positive.

Types of photoresist

 Metallization :- In this process a layer of metal is deposited on the substrate

surface. The proposed design involves the deposition of Cr/Au layer on the substrate by PVD (physical vapor deposition) process. PVD process is of two types : Evaporation :- Metals are heated up to its vaporization temperature and then evaporate to form a thin film on the surface of the target. To control the composition of the deposited material evaporation is performed under vacuum condition. Sputtering :- In this the target at a high negative potential is bombarded with positive Ar ions created in plasma. The target (a disc of material to be

deposited) material is sputtered away mainly as neutral atoms by momentum

transfer and ejected surface atoms are deposited on the substrate placed at anode. Cr/Au layer is used to make electric contact pads on the device and it provides good adhesion properties.

 Etching :- It is used to chemically remove layers form the surface of a wafer.

Wafer is protected from the etchant by a masking material which resists

etching. Etching process is classified as dry and wet etching : In wet etching chemicals in liquid state are used while in dry etching ionized gases are used. In the proposed design DRIE (Deep Reactive-Ion Etching) is used. Reactive-Ion Etching :- A radio frequency (RF) signal is applied to the anode of the parallel plate reactor.

After the base pressure is achieved gases are introduced into the chamber. When the pressure is in the appropriate range RF power is applied to the anode due which electrons are emitted from the anode. The negatively charged particles collide with gas atoms and molecules creating free radicals and stripping of electrons creating ions. These electrons combine with ions and create photons to conserve energy. The substrate is placed on the cathode and heated to an appropriate temperature for etching. The direction of the species hitting the substrate surface is random. Hence ion flux changes as a function of depth. As a

result RIE is not suitable for high aspect ratio. The etching via RIE is isotropic and
rate is very fast. Deep Reactive-Ion Etching - ICP Reactor :- This type of system is used for Deep-RIE.

Direction of the ion bombardment of the substrate is highly directional in an ICP

reactor which is very important for deep etching. After the base pressure is achieved processed gases are turned on. Once the RF input power is applied to the large coil that surrounds the vacuum chamber, plasma is created.

 In an ICP Reactor the AC current in the coil creates a magnetic field. The charge particles are accelerated by the magnetic force. The DRIE process is an alternation of short time isotropic etches in S6 plasma and short time polymer deposition using 4 8 plasma. DRIE process is now called Bosch Process.

 Principle of Bosch Process :- A single short time etching step is applied to the
patterned silicon substrate in 6 plasma and the exposed silicon is etched in an almost isotropic manner. The process switches to a polymerization step and a 4 8 polymer layer is deposited on the exposed silicon surface as well as on mask. The polymer layer on the bottom of the structure is rapidly removed by ion

bombardment and the etchant continues to react with the exposed silicon.
The combination of etching and polymerization results in good anisotropy. High etching rate, high selectivity, ultra large etching depth, high aspect ratio

can be achieved.
Wafer Bonding:- Silicon can be bonded to the glass by anodic bonding process.

Fabrication Flow
The MEMS gyroscope proposed is to be fabricated with the bulk micro
machining process. The fabrication flow is developed in IntelliFAB . The fabrication process is done in 4 steps:-

Step 1 :- Making anchors and wiring on glass substrate.

Step 2 :- Gyro structures is formed on the silicon substrate Step 3 :- Both the formed structures are bonded anodically.

Step 4 :- Undoped silicon is dissolved to release the device.

Mask Designing
The masks used in the process flow are designed for negative photoresists.
The fabrication step for this MEMS gyroscope are simple and only three photolithography masks are needed. The masks are designed in IntelliMask.

Comparison with the Pre-fabricated Device

Specifications Values Previous Design Gyroscope size (mm) 1 1.6 Values Proposed Design

Structural layer thickness (m)

Drive mode resonance frequency (Hz) Sense mode resonance frequency (Hz) Sense gap (m) Biasing voltage (V)

10
40,650 41,250 1.5 40

10
4,800 4,900 3 15

Sense capacitance (fF)

Drive-mode vibration amplitude (m) Quality factor (at atmosphere)

130
2 500

130
2.5 126

 Advantage of proposed design over previous design : Previous design cannot be operated for drive displacement more than 2 m whereas the proposed design can be operated for large drive displacements. The previous design utilizes variable area sensing elements which is not suitable to measure small displacement change whereas the proposed design utilizes the variable gap sensing element which is more suitable for smaller displacement changes. The biasing voltage is low in the proposed design. Although the quality factor is greater in previous design the sense capacitance is same.

Thanks