Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt einen neuartigen Ablauf zur Herstellung eines Vibrationssensors auf Waferebene. Die Besonderheit des Sensors liegt in der Reduktion des Spaltmaßes der kapazitiven Elektroden im Anschluss an die Strukturerzeugung. Dies gelingt unter Nutzung des Mikroschweißprozess von Siliziumelementen. Hierbei sieht die innovative Fertigungstechnologie eine Strukturhöhe von 100 μm vor. Zusätzlich wird die Erarbeitung einer Struktur für die Durchführung eines Mikrozugversuchs auf Waferebene beschrieben. Dieser dient der Bestimmung der maximal ertragbaren Zugkraft mikromechanischer Schweißverbindungen und ermöglicht die fertigungsbegleitende Prozesskontrolle. Auf Basis der Messwerte lassen sich Rückschlüsse auf die Geometrie der Schweißstruktur ableiten als auch ein zerstörungsfreies Modell für die Vorhersage der Verbindungsfestigkeit entwickeln. Die Ergebnisbewertung umfasst die qualitative als auch quantitative Charakterisierung der Mikroschweißverbindung sowie die Bewertung des Vibrationssensors in Form eines Funktionsdemonstrators. / The Ph.D. thesis focuses on a novel approach for the fabrication of a MEMS accelerometer on wafer level. The technology relies on the micro welding process of silicon, which is utilized for fixing one component of the capacitive electrode system at a deflected position. Consequently, the gap width of the variable capacitor is reduced below 1 µm for a structure height of 100 µm. The silicon micro welding process is reviewed and investigated. By utilizing a micro tensile test, the maximum bearable load is deduced for different welding geometries. Following these results, a model for predicting the strength of the micro welding site is introduced, allowing for non destructive process monitoring. Finally, the characteristics of the MEMS accelerometer are measured on wafer level and chip level after hermetic packaging respectively.

Silicon and silicon-based materials have been investigated for the fabrication of electronic, optoelectronic, solar, and structural/mechanical devices. To enable the continuous use of silicon-based materials for next generation device applications, new and inexpensive ways of fabricating features of silicon, and silica-based materials are needed. This dissertation investigates: 1) novel techniques for the fabrication of silica and silicon nanofeatures with potential application in the electronics and optoelectronics industry; 2) new designs of photomodifiable material systems (resists) for maskless patterning of silica filled composites for structural/mechanical applications. Sub-micron and nano-scaled features were fabricated onto silicon and silicon oxide substrates using a technique combining block copolymers and laser interference ablation. The sacrificial block copolymers are loaded with metallic salt precursors and patterned with a UV laser to generate device-oriented nanofeatures. New photopolymerizable material systems (negative tone resists) were developed based on curcumin photosensitizer and an epoxy-acrylate, vinylether, and vinylether-acrylate silica¬-loaded material systems. The cationic and radical mechanisms employed by the monomeric systems under a high vapor pressure mercury lamp source were investigated with several materials characterization techniques.

L‘objectif de la thèse consiste à caractériser expérimentalement sous vide les propriétés d’émission électronique de matériaux utilisés dans des applications spatiales tels que l’argent et l’aluminium dans leur état de contamination naturel, afin de fournir des données précises à la communauté du spatial tout en contribuant à comprendre et quantifier le rôle joué par la contamination naturelle sur leurs propriétés d’émission électronique. Afin de répondre à cet objectif, un moyen expérimental nommé CELESTE permettant de caractériser les différentes propriétés d’émission électronique de ces matériaux sous ultravide a été développé. Il permet d’effectuer des mesures de rendement d’émission électronique ainsi que des mesures de rendement de rétrodiffusion. Afin d’établir un lien entre la physique d’émission bien connue des matériaux purs et la physique d’émission des matériaux d’utilité pratique, un protocole expérimental spécifique a été mis en place. Il permet de caractériser l’évolution du rendement d’émission et de la distribution énergétique des électrons émis à partir d’un matériau exposé à l’air jusqu’à l’élimination par décapage ionique successifs de tous les contaminants déposés à la surface. Une corrélation a été établie entre évolution du rendement d’émission et évolution de la composition de la surface de l’argent et de l’aluminium. Ce travail a permis de mettre en évidence l’influence prépondérante des contaminants naturels sur leurs propriétés d’émission électronique. En effet, les propriétés d’émission de ces deux matériaux exposés à l’air dépendent d’avantage de la nature de la couche de contamination déposée à la surface que du matériau pur sous-jacent. / The aim of this study is to provide accurate data on electronic emission properties of technical materials used in spacecraft applications such as silver and aluminium and to understand and to quantify the effect of natural contamination on their electron emission properties.In order to reach this goal, an experimental facility named CELESTE allowing electronic emission properties characterization under ultra-high vacuum had been developed. The facility can be used to perform electron emission yield measurements and also backscattering yield measurements thanks to special experimental setup developed during this phD. To establish a link between the well-known emission physic of pure materials and those of “technical” materials, a specific protocol has been implemented. It allows the study of emission proprieties starting from a sample exposed to ambient atmosphere and reaching a cleaned sample, using Ar ion etching step by step technic.A link has been established between electron emission yield and surface composition evolution of silver and aluminium sample. This work highlights the leading influence of natural contamination on the electron emission proprieties of metals.

This research explores a novel in-situ technique for monitoring film thickness in the reactive etching process that incorporates a micromachined sensor. The sensor correlates film thickness with changes in resonant frequency that occurs in the micromachined platform during etching. The sensor consists of a platform that is suspended over drive and sense electrodes on the surface of the substrate. As material is etched from the platform, its resonant vibrational frequency shifts by an amount that is proportional to the amount of material etched, allowing etch rate to be inferred. This RIE monitoring methodology exploits the accuracy of resonant micromechanical structures, whereby shifts in the fundamental resonant frequency measure a physical parameter. A majority of these systems require free-standing mechanical movement and utilize a sacrificial layer process as the key technique to develop and release the structure on a substrate. A sacrificial layer technique that incorporates a low temperature sacrificial polymer was utilized to develop and release the suspended RIE sensor with excellent performance and is capable of fabricating other low cost, high performance and reliable suspended MEMS devices. The integration of sensors and electronic circuitry is a dominant trend in the semiconductor industry, and much work and research has been devoted to this effort. The RIE sensor relies on capacitive transduction to detect small capacitance changes and the resulting change in resonant frequency during the RIE process. The RIE sensor's overall performance is limited by the interface circuit, and integration with the proper circuit allows the RIE sensor to function as a highly sensitive measure of etch rate during the RIE process. A capacitive feedback charge amplifier interface circuit, when configured with the RIE senor at the input achieves very low noise sensing of capacitance changes and offers the potential for wide dynamic range and high sensitivity. As an application vehicle, process control was demonstrated in the PlasmaTherm SLR series RIE system located in the Georgia Tech Microelectronics Research Center.

The continuing scaling of integrated circuits beyond 22nm technology node poses increasing challenges to Electromigration (EM) reliability for Cu on-chip interconnects. First, the width of Cu lines in advanced technology nodes is less than the electron mean free path which is 39nm in Cu at room temperature. This is a new size regime where any new scaling effect on EM is of basic interest. And second, the reduced line width necessitates the development of new methods to analyze the EM characteristics. Such studies will require the development of well controlled processes to fabricate suitable test structures for EM study and model verification. This dissertation is to address these critical issues for EM in Cu interconnects. The dissertation first studies the initial void growth under EM, which is critical for measurement of the EM lifetime and statistics. A method based on analyzing the resistance traces obtained from EM tests of multi-link structures has been developed. The results indicated that there are three stages in the resistance traces where the rate of the initial void growth in Stage I is lower than that in Stage III after interconnect failure and they are linearly correlated. An analysis extending the Korhonen model has been formulated to account for the initial void formation. In this analysis, the stress evolution in the line during void growth under EM was analyzed in two regions and an analytic solution was deduced for the void growth rate. A Monte Carlo grain growth simulation based on the Potts model was performed to obtain grain structures for void growth analysis. The results from this analysis agreed reasonably well with the EM experiments. The next part of the dissertation is to study the size effect on the electron wind force for a thin film and for a line with a rectangular cross section. The electron wind force was modeled by considering the momentum transfer during collision between electrons and an atom. The scaling effect on the electron wind force was found to be represented by a size factor depending on the film/line dimensions. In general, the electron wind force is enhanced with increasing dimensional confinement. Finally, a process for fabrication of Si nanotrenches was developed for deposition of Cu nanolines with well-defined profiles. A self-aligned sub-lithographic mask technique was developed using polymer residues formed on Si surfaces during reactive ion etching of Si dioxide in a fluorocarbon plasma. This method was capable to fabricate ultra-narrow Si nanotrenches down to 20nm range with rectangular profiles and smooth sidewalls, which are ideal for studying EM damage mechanisms and model verification for future technology nodes. / text

Eine grundlegende Schwierigkeit in der Röntgenoptik liegt in der Bereitstellung geeigneter Optiken. So ist aufgrund der schwachen Wechselwirkung der Röntgenstrahlung mit Materie der Einsatz brechender Optiken nicht sinnvoll, und es wird auf alternative Konzepte wie Röntgenwellenleiter zurückgegriffen. Röntgenwellenleiter sind nicht-dispersive strahlführende Optiken, welche die Kohärenz der Röntgenstrahlung filtern und als quasi-Punktquellen fungieren. Hierbei wird der Röntgenstrahl in einer oder zwei Dimensionen räumlich beschränkt, wobei der Wellenlängenbereich der Röntgenstrahlung eine Abmessung im sub-100 nm-Bereich erfordert. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde ein Verfahren etabliert, mit welchem die Herstellung von Wellenleiterkanälen im sub-50 nm-Bereich in Silizium gelingt. Die Prozessierung basiert hierbei auf einem Schema aus elektronenstrahllithographischer Belichtung, Reaktivem Ionenätzen und Wafer bonding. Das Verfahren ist variabel in Bezug auf verschiedene Wellenleitergeometrien, beispielsweise gekreuzte Wellenleiter und Kanalwellenleiter, ist auf alternative Materialien übertragbar, und erlaubt die Strahlführung auf in einer Dimension gekrümmten Pfaden. Die im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit hergestellten Wellenleiter wurden erfolgreich an verschiedenen Synchrotron-Messplätzen eingesetzt und ihre Fernfelder charakterisiert, und der kohärente Wellenleiterstrahl wurde in der Röntgenmikroskopie und der holographischen Bildgebung eingesetzt. Es finden sich sowohl für die Quellgröße der Wellenleiter als auch für die Auflösung in der Bildgebung Werte im sub-50 nm-Bereich.

ABSTRACT DEVELOPMENT OF A MICRO-FABRICATION PROCESS SIMULATOR FOR MICRO-ELECTRO-MECHANICAL SYSTEMS (MEMS) Yildirim, Alper M.S, Department of Mechanical Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Melik D&ouml / len December 2005, 140 pages The aim of this study is to devise a computer simulation tool, which will speed-up the design of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems by providing the results of the micro-fabrication processes in advance. Anisotropic etching along with isotropic etching of silicon wafers are to be simulated in this environment. Similarly, additive processes like doping and material deposition could be simulated by means of a Cellular Automata based algorithm along with the use of OpenGL library functions. Equipped with an integrated mask design editor, complex mask patterns can be created by the software and the results are displayed by the Cellular Automata cells based on their spatial location and plane. The resultant etched shapes are in agreement with the experimental results both qualitatively and quantitatively. Keywords: Wet Etching, Anisotropic Etching, Doping, Cellular Automata, Micro-fabrication simulation, Material Deposition, Isotropic Etching, Dry Etching, Deep Reactive Ion Etching

Measurement of absorption spectra of plasma during reactive ion etching enables characterization of etched species and control over the etching process. Aim of this diploma thesis is to design spectroscope with Czerny-Turner configuration for reactive ion etching system. Developed spectroscope achieves 1 nm resolution in 350-800 nm range. Device was tested during reactive ion etching of silicon.

The work is focused on research and development of a suitable method for creating a selective emitter for the visible and near infrared region so that they are able to work optimally together with silicon photovoltaic cells in a thermophotovoltaic system. The aim of the work was to develop a new method of creating very fine structures outside the current standard, which will increase the emissivity of the base material to meet the needs of a selective emitter for the VID and NIR region. The methods available to us for the creation of structures were chosen, from which we eliminated all unsuitable ones and we introduced the optimal procedure and parameters for their creation for the selected method. In this work, we focused on both ceramic and metallic materials, whose heat resistance and selective properties are key to this work. Part of the development of the emitter structures was also the need for pretreatment of the substrate itself, where great emphasis was placed on the purity of materials and surface roughness. Since ceramic materials cannot achieve a surface roughness so low that the desired structures can be formed, these materials have been purposefully used primarily for the purpose of combining the base material with thin layers of other high temperature material. Their compatibility and suitability were verified in terms of adhesion and subsequent heat resistance. The main material for the formation of fine structures was purposefully chosen tungsten, for which we verified the influence of the formed structure on the emissivity as well as the thermal stability during long-term exposure to high temperatures. The work thus represents not only a new method of creating very fine structures, which are not normally formed in such subtlety, but also opens the way to new possibilities of combining more materials to achieve the required selectivity of the thermophotovoltaic emitter.

The aim of this work is to design fully working measuring system for the reactive ion etching system (RIE). The Michelson interfometer, previously developed in Ústav přístrojové techniky, v.v.i., is used in this work. The theoretical part is aimed at description of interferometric methods for precise measuring of length. In next part the etching proces with RIE is described. In practical part the testing system was constructed from the parts of Thorlabs company . The functionality was controlled with this system and the results of measuring were compared with the profilometer. In next step technical drawings were created and the whole system was made.