Print Email Facebook Twitter Novel method of alignment to buried cavities in cavity-SOI wafers for advanced MEMS devices Title Novel method of alignment to buried cavities in cavity-SOI wafers for advanced MEMS devices Author Mountain, Christopher (University of Sheffield) Kluba, M.M. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials) Bergers, L.I.J.C. (Eindhoven University of Technology; Philips Research) Snijder, Jaap (Philips Innovation Services) Dekker, R. (TU Delft Electronic Components, Technology and Materials; Philips Research) Date 2019 Abstract Accurate alignment between the cavities in cavity-SOI (c-SOI) wafers and lithography on the wafer surface is essential to advanced MEMS production. Existing alignment methods are well defined, but often require specialized equipment or costly software packages available only in professional manufacturing environments. It would be beneficial for the microfabrication world to be able to utilize standard alignment techniques and tools that are easily available also in smaller MEMS fabrication units and especially the majority of research facilities. Therefore, we demonstrate a feasible method for c-SOI wafer alignment using an ASML PAS5500/100 wafer stepper with standard software configuration by relocating ASML alignment markers towards wafer's edges and utilizing a terracing process to reveal them for alignment. Moreover, we characterize the magnitude and behavior of image offset errors that are introduced using this method. The offset error is found to be inversely proportional to the value of the coordinate in each axis, resulting in images being shifted towards the center of the wafer. The measured offset errors are <160 nm, and are suitable for most applications. To further minimize these errors we propose a simple model or database of the offsets. We conclude that this alternative alignment method is feasible for a number of MEMS applications, and could promote increased integration of c-SOI technology into advanced MEMS production. Subject AlignmentAlignment markerC-SOICavity-SOILithographyMEMSWafer stepper To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:76cebc23-1790-4811-bccb-f9d3bde42056 DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mne.2019.100043 Source Micro and Nano Engineering, 5, 1-6 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2019 Christopher Mountain, M.M. Kluba, L.I.J.C. Bergers, Jaap Snijder, R. Dekker Files PDF 1_s2.0_S2590007219300292_main.pdf 848.85 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:76cebc23-1790-4811-bccb-f9d3bde42056/datastream/OBJ/view