Low Temperature Fabrication of Integrated Large-Area MEMS Devices on Flexible Substrates

"The integration of large-area MEMS devices with electronic circuitry promises to deliver significant benefits, such as reduction of device size, increased sensor sensitivities, and reduced fabrication costs. Further, the use of flexible substratesprovides additional benefits in improved environmental performance, conformability, and lower fabrication costs. The applications of an integrated large-area MEMS device on a flexible substrate are numerous, such as improved low-cost inertial sensors formissile and aircraft navigation and shear stress and strain sensor arrays for aircraft skins. Despite advances in the development of MEMS devices with integrated electronics on flexible substrates, limitations still exist that preclude tighter and broaderintegration. The high temperature processes in standard IC fabrication change the mechanical and/or electrical properties of the materials that would be used in MEMS devices and also prevent the fabrication of conventional thin-film transistors (TFTs) onflexible substrates. Another problem has been the lack of large-area high-resolution processing techniques to enable the fabrication these devices. In this proposal, we present a plan to develop a new, combined MEMS and IC fabrication methodology thatwould eliminate the high-temperature process steps of IC fabrication and enable large-area, high-resolution patterning on flexible substrates. This methodology would build upon Anvik's exte