Category Archives: Packaging and Testing

April 13, 2012 — Blogger Michael A. Fury, Techcet Group, reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights from the fourth day: nanowire FETs, laminate MEMS, nanoparticles in security printing, graphene nanoribbons, Ta2O5 memristors, redox flow batteries, graphene, and more.

MRS Spring:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4 of the MRS Spring 2012 meeting opened Thursday at Moscone West in San Francisco under sunny skies and a brief rain shower, after a stormy night of heavy rain. No scientists were lost in landslides in the surrounding hills.

AA7.1 Charles Lieber at Harvard University took us on a tour of the frontier between biology and nanotechnology. The field effect transistor (FET) structure is readily adaptable to monitoring basic biological signals. Nanowire FETs can bring us into the regime of 10nm active length detectors with diameters of 3-5nm. Devices have been demonstrated with femtomolar sensitivity to specific cancer markers, and 100-billion-fold discrimination in blood serum separation. Nanowire growth can be periodically slowed to introduce dopants with sharp interfaces, enabling pn junctions along the length of a single wire. These nano devices allow recording in a regime where the active device area is much smaller than the membrane area per ion channel. The wires can be shaped by altering the crystal growth, like a plumber bending pipes at the atomic level. Measurements were shown of electrical activity in a live beating-heart cell. Nanowires can be attached to probe arms and integrated into measurement circuitry for routine measurements, to the extent that probing a living brain or heart will ever be routine. The nanotube probe tip can also be joined directly as the gate of an FET, resulting in a “branched intracellular nanotube transistor” or BIT-FET. Nanotubes 2-3nm long achieve sufficient bandwidth to measure fast action potentials in cells. Extending these concepts to “cyborg tissue” will require fabrication of silicon and nanowire electronics on flexible, macro-porous substrates resembling biological scaffolds so that cells can interpenetrate with the addressable electronic matrix positions. Resistance is futile. Prepare to be assimilated. His stated objective is to blur the distinction between electronic devices, circuits, living cells and tissues.

B3.1 Guann-Pyng Li of University of California Irvine (UC Irvine) described several implementations of laminate micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) for heterogeneous integrated systems. Mechanical frequency switching is likely to replace integrated circuitry as the band cutoff can be much more sharply defined. Microfluidic systems can be built up and integrated with conventional electronics dropped into place. Organic transistors can be fabricated in place on the laminated PCB substrates for on-board electronics. Vapor deposited pentacene for organic transistors costs $4000/g at the required 99.99% purity for an electron mobility ~3cm2/Vs. Solution deposition of pentacene uses 98% pure material at $20/g and gets you an electron mobility ~3cm2/Vs because solution processing has intrinsic purification properties. The choice is yours…

YY9.3 William Cross of the South Dakota School of Mines described the use of rare-earth-doped nanoparticles in security printing applications. The level of sophistication in covert authentication makes me wonder how counterfeiters can survive any more. Elements mentioned include Er, Yb, Tm and Y, so this technology poses no threat to the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) CeO2 supply chain.

DD12.4 Iñigo Martin-Fernandez of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Labs or LBNL) developed a method for direct growth of graphene nanoribbons (GNR) for device fabrication using 20nm-wide Ni catalyst patterned with an Al2O3 mask. Ribbons longer than 40µm were demonstrated, and selectivity to growth only on the catalyst was excellent.

E7.5 Antonio Torrezan of HP Labs shared his work on sub-nanosecond switching and energy efficiency in Ta2O5 memristors. A custom 20GHz testing apparatus was used to test the fast switching dynamics of memristors integrated into a coplanar waveguide. Reproducible resistance switching speeds ~100ps were demonstrated for both ON and OFF switching.

O7.6 Giu Yang of PNNL described a strategy for electrochemical energy storage and integration of renewable resources into grid applications. Electric cars address one mode of transportation energy, but only add to the grid capacity problem. Fortunately, an analysis of the usage modes and quality requirements shows that storage technologies can be optimized to address only one mode at a time, resulting in relatively bite-sized capacity to deal with. Redox flow batteries can be developed with a range of chemical components that can be stored separately in huge quantities until the power is needed. Such systems are typically operated at 1V or less to avoid hydrogen generation. Nafion is typically used as a separation membrane, but it allows too much cross-contamination between electrolytes as it is actually designed more for fuel cells. The many oxidation states of vanadium make it a most interesting system for designing redox systems that can be regenerated without requiring chemical separation. There is a long way to go, but the direction is promising.

EE7.1 Taishi Takenobu of Waseda U (Japan) showed some recent work on inkjet printing of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) thin-film transistors (TFT). Separation of metallic from semiconducting CNT is required to avoid being trapped by a tradeoff between carrier mobility and on/off current ratio. Earlier work, which concluded that conductivity in high-density semiconducting CNT films was due to residual metallic CNT contamination, is disputed; rather, it is here proposed that it is due to unintentional doping of the CNT during the TFT fabrication process. A flexible ion gel CNT TFT built on polyimide underwent bend testing to a radius of 0.27mm at 178° (basically folded in half) suffered no degradation of on/off current ratio. Another TFT was built on SiO2 using S-CNT for gate and M-CNT for S/D. Performance with SiO2 gate dielectric was poor, while ion gel dielectric was good, indicating once again that CNT density itself is not the controlling factor in inkjet printed devices.

B5.2 Clint Landrock of Simon Fraser U (Canada) developed some autonomous function applications that integrate MEMS, ICs and organic photovoltaics (OPV) cells for low cost, flexible devices. These are fabricated and stored in air with no encapsulation and have shown stability beyond 2 years owing to a novel indium metal OPV cathode. Another component is a fast charging Na+ polymer supercapacitor ~100F/g developed in this group. The current energy cost for the system is estimated at $0.24/kWh, with a roadmap addressing known issues to take it to $0.01/kWh in 3-5 years.

II11.4 Daniel Collins of U Victoria (Canada) walked us through a focused ion beam (FIB) method for fabricating 2D and 3D graphene junctions with graphite that is non-destructive to the extremely delicate monolayer graphene. Fundamental studies will commence now that the fabrication method has been developed.

C10.5 Max Gage of Applied Materials described some modeling work on Cu through silicon via (TSV) CMP via reveal planarization. The model is designed for a single dielectric and circular via, but can be extended to other configurations. Separate equations are developed for each of three polishing regimes: pillar dielectric, Cu not exposed; pillar removal with Cu exposed but field not yet in contact with pad; and final planarization with field in full contact with pad. The model matches well with experimental data while allowing only the effective pattern density as an adjustable parameter.

EE7.6 Andrea Ferrari of U Cambridge spoke on graphene optoelectronics in applications ranging from ultrafast lasers to flexible displays. “Graphene will never replace silicon in our lifetime; that’s stupid.” Good thing. “Graphene Valley” lacks the cachet of “Silicon Valley.” But seriously… Graphene’s properties open up optical detection into the THz range (far IR). Graphene sheets have been fabricated into log normal antennae for effective capture of THz RF radiation, which may be applicable to security applications. The fast laser concept is based on the electroluminescence of graphene oxide, but the device itself remains hypothetical.

F12.3 Matthias Stender of Cabot Microelectronics described an enabling CMP process for GeSbTe (GST) phase-change random access memory (PRAM). GST has a Young’s modulus and shear modulus comparable to but slightly softer than Cu, and it does not form a protective oxide layer upon oxidation. An acceptable balance was found between oxidation and corrosion inhibition to remove the GST film uniformly without changing the GST composition remaining in the cells. Test structures were 30nm wide and 100nm deep in nitride. The slurry was based on colloidal SiO2 with H2O2 oxidizer; other additives are proprietary, though publication of a pending patent application is imminent. A high degree of customization is required for different GST compositions.

J13.10 Sangchul Lee of Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (Korea) used patterned graphene as a transparent conducting electrode for organic TFT and OPV applications. Ni is used as an etch mask for O2 etch patterning, then the graphene electrodes are integrated with pentacene for an OTFT with reasonable performance, with higher mobility, lower contact resistance and higher injection efficiency than a comparable Au electrode device. Various surface pretreatments had a significant effect on the pentacene morphology and the associated OTFT performance. Fortunately, the highest mobility correlated with the lowest contact resistance. OPV devices benefitted from slight doping of the graphene layer and performed well under bending tests to 5mm radius.

Michael A. Fury, Ph.D. is director and senior technology analyst of Techcet Group.

Blogger Mike Fury reports from the MRS Spring 2012 meeting in San Francisco. Highlights from the third day: leakage and TDDB in low- κ dielectrics, flexible energy storage and conversion, Mn capping layers and diffusion barriers, hard masks for Cu interconnects, nanogenerators, Cu in RF, flexible temperature sensors, NEMS and MEMS in HDD, ZnO nanostructures, and various aspects of CMP.

Day 3 of the MRS Spring 2012 meeting opened Wednesday at Moscone West in San Francisco under partly sunny skies after an air-cleansing pre-dawn sprinkle. The halls were much more quiet and subdued than yesterday morning, suggesting a busy Tuesday night for all of the science bars in town.

C3.1 TM Shaw of IBM Watson Research opened the day with a reliability talk on leakage and TDDB in low-κ dielectrics. Leakage was measured with comb structures (60-100nm spaces) using step-wise voltage ramps; data recording started one minute after each step to eliminate charging transients. Over time, the Poole-Frenkel barrier height decreases continuously. At longer test times (>200 hours) the leakage data is more indicative of tunneling between trap sites; overlapping trap sites provide the leakage path. The rate of decrease of the Poole-Frenkel barrier height in early life testing was found to correlate well with TDDB behavior in longer time testing, and may serve as an early screening proxy.  Both moisture and Cu ions have a significant impact on time dependent leakage, but the magnitude of the leakage currents does not correlate well with TDDB lifetime.

C3.2 Sean King of Intel PTD studied the band diagram of the low-κ/Cu  system with XPS and REELS to elucidate some fundamental understanding of interconnect leakage mechanisms. He focused on the interface between Cu, the SiCON:H low-κ etch stop and the SiOC:H. Leakage through the etch stop was shown to dominate over direct via-to-via leakage through the Ta barrier and the dielectric. Future work will expand on the defect trapping states in this materials system. The talk concluded with an announcement that resumes of new graduates are welcome, as Intel needs to staff a new R&D facility currently under construction in Oregon.

C3.3 Brad Bittel of Penn State described some magnetic resonance studies of BEOL dielectrics; this work is a collaboration with Intel’s Sean King (above). Defects observed with EPR are likely important to leakage current as well as related reliability phenomena. SDT provides a direct link between EPR defects and electrical transport because only the centers involved in leakage can show up in SDT.

K3.5 Daniel Steingart of City College NY told us about flexible storage and energy conversion. Their approach was to focus on making the binders and electrodes flexible by embedding the MnO2 and Zn electrodes in a Ag-impregnated nylon mesh (this is the work I reported on earlier this week). This battery represents a conventional material set, but the Zn/MnO2 couple degrades over time as its charge/discharge cycles drive it to a stable equilibrium that is not a useful energy source. The limit seems to be ~600 cycles. Efforts to develop alternate material systems found adhesion failure between Al electrodes and a polymer/nanoparticle composite electrolyte in early test capacitors. It was resolved by using a seed layer of the nanoparticle alone as a surface roughening treatment to promote adhesion of the composite.

C4.1 Roy Gordon of Harvard U spoke on Mn capping layers and diffusion barriers in copper interconnects for TSV and on-chip vias, including a unique void-free via fill process.  The Mn CVD precursor for capping is a metal amidinate that deposits at 300°-350°C at 5 torr selectively on the Cu surface after passivating the dielectric with BDDS or DTS. Mn is a fast diffuser in Cu that migrates to SiO2 and Si3N4 interfaces, leaving the Cu resistivity after 400°C anneal at the pre-Mn level. Adhesion strength to the dielectric increases with Mn at the interface. An 8nm MnSixOy layer was shown to prevent both oxygen and moisture diffusion into the copper. Iodine-catalyzed copper bottom-up fill requires a copper seed layer before the mechanism can initiate. This work found that a seed layer of CVD Mn4N (Mn amidinate with NH3 at 130°C) will also adsorb the iodine sub-monolayer to initiate the CVD Cu fill at 180°C. Seam-free Cu fill was shown for <20nm vias with 5:1 AR, with large Cu grains across the entire via diameter prior to anneal. The Cu resistivity is lower than EP Cu due to the greater purity of CVD Cu. TSV copper fill was also demonstrated with AR>25:1 and 460mΩ/square Cu which exceeds the current roadmap.

C5.1 George Antonelli  of Novellus provided some insights into the ideal hard mask for copper interconnects at 20nm and below. Carbon films are deposited at 275°C with ion bombardment, yielding the same density as conventional films deposited at 500°C. Surface roughness was RMS 0.5-1.1nm, which impacts line edge roughness (LER). Line bending with this system was tested over the range AR 3.2 to 5.7 and was found to peak at AR 4.5 rather than increasing monotonically as AR increases. This was due to the interplay of mechanical stress with other process parameters and material properties. A doped SiC material was designed as an alternative to TiN hard mask to facilitate chemical removal or CMP after etch. More recently, work is underway on an undoped carbide variant that can be removed with wet etch and does not require CMP.

N7.1 Sang-Woo Kim from Sungkyunkwan U (Korea) described a high performance, transparent, flexible, stretchable, foldable (whew!!) nanogenerator based on multi-dimensional ZnO structures. Harvesting electrical energy from mechanical motion and vibration is the common objective, but the scope can range from replacing pacemaker batteries (not recommended for avowed couch potatoes) to embedding large area arrays in roadbeds to use traffic to generate power. PVDF is a material of choice for generating high output voltage, while ZnO is preferred for generating high output current. Graphene sheets were transfer printed onto a PEN polymer substrate, and ZnO vertical nanorods (1D) were grown on the graphene. The material functioned well, but the PEN distorted above 250°C. For such harsh conditions, a cellulose paper with Au seed layer was substituted for the PEN, and performed well even under harsh conditions. A 2D alternative was fabricated using ZnO nanosheets aligned vertically between electrodes. The work function of the top electrode limits the current output, with Au > graphene > ITO > Al.

C5.4 Ed Cooney of IBM talked about the stress effects in Cu inductors for RF technologies. While many of us are focused on 20nm and below, these devices still operate in the 0.18-0.35µm regime and require copper layers >3µm thick for proper inductor performance. At these feature sizes, reliability failure mechanisms are driven more by CTE mismatches.  Raising the post-plating anneal temperature from 100°C to 250°C reduced the room temperature tensile stress in the Cu which in turn reduces the driving force for delamination of the Cu from the SiN cap layer.

K4.5 Gregory Whiting of PARC showed a viable path toward high volume printing of flexible temperature sensors sensitive to 0.1°C up to 50°C. InSn/V2O5 was the eutectic mixture chosen for this work, with the ink scaled up to 1kg batches. Devices are printed on PET with screen printed Ag electrodes with gap widths varying from 250 to 500µm. The device shows a sensitivity of 1% change in resistance per degree between 20°C and 70°C, though a sensitivity to moisture dictates the needs for encapsulation for field use.

B2.1 Toshiki Hirano of Hitachi Global Storage (now Western Digital) gave an overview of MEMS and NEMS technology applications in the HDD world. HDD recording density has increased 3×108 times since the first IBM RAMAC in 1957. The track width on a 95mm disk today is 68nm (about the same as a human hair in a baseball field), with 3nm clearance between the R/W head and the disk surface. The next generation of actuator may be a moving magnetic element, now in R&D, in place of the moving slider. Another variation is a R/W head with heating elements on either side of the active area. Precise positioning is achieved by thermal expansion of the heater element on either side. Similarly, head height control can be positioned vertically with a resistance heating element, allowing a fly height of 1-3nm in combination with a contact sensor feedback loop. Bit patterned recording disk media are extendible to 10 Tbit/in2 using a self assembled polymer to guide the definition of individual domains. Thermal assisted recording can be facilitated with a near field transducer that has a spot size of 50nm.

N7.6 Rusen Yang of U Minnesota described energy harvesting with ZnO nanowires. ZnO nanostructures are unique in that they have been fabricated into nanobelts, nanosprings, nanorings, nanohelixes, and nanotubes, but nanowires are the focus here. These transducers are adequate to power pH and UV sensors, and the power can be stored to power LEDs. Power delivery is still in the µW to mW range. While the piezoelectric properties of ZnO are of primary interest here, it has other important and useful properties such as biocompatibility that add to its attractiveness for further research.

C6.3 John Zhang of ST Micro talked about the challenges in Cu CMP at 20nm and below. Center-to-edge uniformity is affected by the radial change in via sidewall angle, which gives a larger via top diameter at the edge and therefore a non-uniform tendency for dishing. In shrinking from 1µm L/S to 32nm L/S, Cu dendrites become increasingly problematic but can be controlled with PCMP chemistry. Validation must be established by looking for long term dendrite growth >100 hours after processing, and its effects can show up in TDDB data. The process window is shrinking as uniformity and defectivity often have competing optimization schemes. It was suggested that uniformity and defectivity parameters may have a minimum constant value, but no Heisenberg CMP uncertainty principle was actually articulated.

C6.4 Jae-Young Bae of Hanyang U (Korea) described the correlation of pad conditioning and pad surface roughness with CMP step height reduction, leading to a new slurry concept for initial step height reduction. Picolinic acid was added to ceria slurry; the maximum amount adsorbed on the pad surface for monolayer coverage was 0.36mg/m2. The acid increased the adhesion strength of the ceria particles to the pad surface by ~3x, leading to a 5x increase in removal rate, and 3x increase in planarization rate (60s vs. 180s).

C6.5 Bahar Basim of Ozyegin U (Turkey) talked about a wafer level CMP model to predict the impact of pad conditioning on process performance. Higher wafer scratch levels are correlated with points on the pad at which the conditioner sweep changes direction. Sweeping the conditioner over the edge of the pad surface also creates additional wear when the conditioner transits back onto the pad. The resulting pad profile model enables tailoring the wafer surface to best match the incoming wafer profile.

Also see Mike Fury’s other reports from MRS Spring 2012:

MRS Spring 2012: Day 1

MRS Spring 2012: Day 2

 

 

April 11, 2012 — Research and Markets released the "ST L3G3250A 3-axis MEMS Gyroscope Reverse Costing Analysis" report, providing a teardown of STMicroelectronics’ micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) gyroscope in a land-grid array (LGA) package.  

The package has a 3.5 x 3 x 1mm footprint, which is the smallest 3-axis gyroscope including VTI’s CMR3000, the report says. It is 27-40% smaller by volume (35% smaller by footprint) than the other main gyroscopes for consumer applications in production today, which typically have a 4mm2 footprint.

Also read STMicroelectronics’ article: Introduction to MEMS gyroscopes

The L3G3250A is suitable for various applications including gaming and virtual reality input devices, motion control with man-machine interface (MMI), GPS navigation systems, appliances, and robotics.

This report provides complete teardown of the MEMS gyroscope. For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/386cc1a5/st_l3g3250a_3axis

Visit the MEMS Channel of Solid State Technology, and subscribe to our MEMS Direct e-newsletter!

April 3, 2012 — The MEMS packaging sector is growing 2x faster (~20% CAGR) by unit shipments than the larger IC packaging industry, shows Yole Développement in its report “MEMS Packaging.” Wafer level packaging (WLP) and through-silicon via (TSV) technologies will see the fastest growth, with leadframe and organic laminate-based packages hitting 16% CAGR over the next 5 years.

There are plenty of MEMS and sensors to be found in recent smartphone designs: MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, electronic compass magnetometers, multiple silicon MEMS microphones, FBAR / BAW filters & duplexers, RF switches and MEMS oscillators: there is no doubt that MEMS content is growing faster than standard IC content.

Figure. Key elements of a MEMS package. SOURCE: MEMS Packaging Report, Yole.

In terms of how the packaging is involved, it’s all about orchestrating the assembly of MEMS sensor and their related ASIC inside a module. But this is costly: packaging, assembly, test and calibration steps account for nearly 35% to 60% of a total MEMS packaged module’s cost.

MEMS types of packaging are more complex than most standard IC packages because they require “System-in-Package” type of assembly. Additionally, most MEMS packages are connecting sensors to their final environment, bringing very specific constraints at the module level such as building a cavity, a hole in the substrate or metal lead for pressure sensor and microphones, an optical window for optical MEMS, a full vacuum hermeticity at the die level.

The application scope of MEMS is broad and very diversified. Since its early beginnings, the MEMS industry faced the issue of being a highly fragmented market, with NO manufacturing standards clearly emerging.

However, the MEMS law “One MEMS = 1 Device with 1 Process with 1 Package” is now changing as several packaging platform standards are now clearly emerging (such as WLP & TSV interconnects, SiP module assembly based on molded or cavity packaging for e.g.)
This Yole Développement’s report is featuring a full analysis of packaging, assembly & test requirements application by application as well as a dedicated focus on MEMS package substrates such as ceramic, leadframe and organic laminates.

While there are a lot of developments happening for high reliability, low cost MEMS packages in the automotive, medical and industrial application space, the number of MEMS and sensors going into mobile, consumer and gaming applications is expected to continue to skyrocket, driving integration of an incredibly high number of MEMS and sensor devices in unprecedented volume. As a result, OSAT and wafer foundry players are getting more and more interest in MEMS module packaging, as volume and complexity of
MEMS SiP modules is increasing dramatically, implying several key trend in this space:
— IDMs needs to find second sources partners and qualify some OSATs in order to secure their supply chain
— Standardization (coming from both foundries, OSAT, WLP houses or substrate suppliers) is critical and necessary to implement in order to keep the packaging, assembly, test and calibration cost of MEMS modules under control.

More than ever, system-level integration (including package co-design & software competencies, SiP module assembly, passive integration and 3D TSV / WLP capabilities) will be key to leverage a high added value solution to final OEM customers as well as an efficient infrastructure to support the high volume grow of consumer MEMS applications. “There are many different players with different designs, and it’s not likely we’ll see one solution adopted by all the players. Expect to see a blooming of several “big niches” standards in the future, driven by the biggest and most successful players,” says Laurent Robin, Activity Leader,

Report authors:
Jérôme Baron is the business unit manager of the advanced semiconductor packaging market research at Yole Développement. He has been following the 3D packaging market evolution since its early beginnings at the device, equipment and material levels. He was granted a Master of Science degree from INSA-Lyon in France as well as a Master of Research from Lyon Institute of Nanotechnology.

Laurent Robin is in charge of the MEMS & Sensors market research at Yole Développement, with a focus on inertial sensors and RF-MEMS related technologies. He holds a Physics Engineering degree from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Toulouse, plus a Master Degree in Technology & Innovation Management from EM Lyon Business School, France.

Companies cited in the report:
AAC Acoustic Technologies, Aichi MI, AKM, Akustica, Amkor, Analog Devices, ASE, Avago Technologies, bTendo, Bosch, Carsem, Canon, China WLCSP, Colibrys, DALSA / Teledyne, DelfMEMS, Denso, Discera, DRS, Epcos – TDK, EPWorks, FLIR Systems, Freescale, Fujifilm Dimatix, Fujikura, GE Sensing, Goodrich-AIS, Hana Microelectronics, Honeywell, Hosiden, HP, Infineon, Invensense, Ion Torrent, JCAP, J-Devices, Kionix, Knowles Electronics, KYEC, Kyocera, Lemoptix, Lexmark, Lingsen, MEM Hitech, Melexis, MEMJET, MEMSiC, Microvision, Miradin, Murata, NEC / Schott, Oak-Mitsui, NXP Semiconductor, Olympus, Omron, Panasonic, PlanOptik, PoLight, Pyreos, Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Raytheon, Rohm, Rood Microtec, Sand9, Sencio, Seiko-Epson, Sensata, Sensonor, Sensor Dynamics, Shinko, SiTime, Silex Microsystems, Silicon Sensing Systems, Sony, SPIL, StatsChipPAC, STMicroelectronics, Systron Donner Inertial, Taiyo-Yuden, Tecnisco, Teramikros, Texas Instruments, Tong Hsing Electronics, Triquint Semiconductor, Tronics Microsytems, TSMC, ULIS, Unimicron, Unisem, UTAC, VTI Technologies, WiSOL, Wispry, X-Fab, Xintec, Yamaha…

Yole Développement is a group of companies providing market research, technology analysis, strategy consulting, media and finance services. Learn more at www.yole.fr.

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Karen Lightman, the Managing Director of the MEMS Industry Group, blogs from the MEMS Executive Congress Europe, which was held March 20th, in Zurich, Switzerland.

ST’s Carmelo Papa boldly declared that “MEMS is only limited by the imagination” during his opening keynote at MEMS Executive Congress Europe last week.  In many ways this phrase exemplifies the conference itself. All of the speakers on our four panels  — industrial, biomedical/Quality of Life (QoL), automotive and consumer – as well as our keynotes — conveyed that frontier feeling that MEMS can truly change the world. Sure we have some challenges to overcome (the biggest being packaging), but the potential of having MEMS (frickin’) everywhere is a very tangible reality.

Thankfully the media who attended the Congress Europe have already done an impressive job of highlighting the panelists’ and keynotes’ more technical points. (Please refer to our Congress press coverage for the growing list of stories.)  So instead of retelling you who said what regarding which ISO qualification, I’ll use this blog to give you the more colorful side of the Congress (shocking disclosure, I know).  And speaking of color, MIG’s Monica Takacs did a great job of capturing the Congress in pictures and we’ve posted them on our Flickr site; you will want to check it out.

I am going to give you a taste of the Congress by sharing with you my favorite quotes, saving my very favorite for last. I’ll start with one by our opening keynote, Carmelo Papa. When Carmelo was talking “off the ST script,” his playful Italian personality made him a crowd favorite. Like when he said that he couldn’t reveal ST’s biggest customer “even under torture,” but he’d give us some hints: “It is green, round and delicious to eat.” What a great way to describe Apple.  I also liked how he described MEMS as the “mouse for portable devices” as it enables a new realm of gesture.

My next favorite quote was from VTI’s Hannu Laatikainen.  I began to think of him as a “Finnish Haiku Poet” when he said that we needed to “treat the car more like a human that can see, feel, hear, smell and taste.” Great stuff.  I absolutely enjoyed hearing every single word coming out of the mouth of Dr. Berger of Clinatec and it wasn’t just because I am a sucker for a French accent. I loved his description of connecting technology with medicine and his passion for patient health, safety and welfare.  He urged that there must be more money for clinical trials of technology for medical treatment to prove efficacy (not just money for consumer-inspired sport applications masking as healthcare products). I couldn’t agree more. 

I laughed when Stefan Finkbeiner introduced himself and stated that his company, Akustica, hailed from Pittsburgh, the “MEMS center of the US.” Stefan then modified the statement by saying that Pittsburgh is the “MEMS capital of Pennsylvania” and “definitely the MEMS capital of Western PA.” My hometown is a lot of things, but not yet the MEMS capital of the US.

But my absolute favorite quote from MEMS Executive Congress Europe came from Continental’s Bernhard Schmid. When someone from the audience asked the panelists if visual sensors will replace MEMS on automotive, Bernhard responded with a rhetorical question: “Have the eyes cannibalized the ears? No. Both senses/sensors are needed for smart automotive.” I guess he was inspired by Hannu’s earlier comment about the car’s senses being more human. I wouldn’t have expected such eloquence from a bunch of automotive engineering executives.  But like the Congress in general, these guys impressed and surprised me.

MEMS Executive Congress Europe was a fantastic success. I was expecting 100 attendees; we had 155. I thought we had a handful of sponsors; we had over 30.

While pausing momentarily to reflect on the highlights of our European event, my staff and I are looking forward to building the content for this year’s upcoming MEMS Executive Congress US in Scottsdale (November 7-8). And yes, we are looking at another Congress event in Europe in 2013 and possibly in Asia as well.

By design, MEMS Executive Congress is unique in the industry. Involving only minimal bribery (just the chocolate in Zurich at our European event!), we have been fortunate to engage MEMS suppliers and their end-user customers in thoughtful, sometimes spirited discussions about the use of MEMS in commercial applications. With our success in both the US and now in Europe, MIG is meeting a need in the market. Good thing it’s also lots of fun.

March 29, 2012 — Microfluidic systems designer and maker Dolomite released Pico-Glide, a surface coating agent that facilitates advanced droplet microfluidics developed by Sphere Fluidics.

Pico-Glide is used to treat glass and PDMS microfluidic channels to create a uniform and dense fluorophilic layer optimized for droplet performance and stability.

8ul water drop on an untreated glass slide The same water drop on a Pico-Glide-treated glass slide

The product is available in 5ml, 10ml and 25ml. It can be used with Dolomite’s range of Droplet Junction Chips for biotechnology, DNA analysis and cell studies, and other applications.

Sphere Fluidics is commercializing lab-on-a-chip and picodroplet technology from Cambridge University. The technologies can perform thousands of simultaneous reactions on single cells and small populations of molecules contained within aqueous droplets, fractions of a millimeter in size. For more information please visit www.spherefluidics.com

Dolomite creates microfluidics for analytical, chemical, life sciences, clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food and beverage, nuclear, agriculture, petrochemical, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and other applications. For more information please visit www.dolomite-microfluidics.com.

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Sensors in Design 2012 was opened March 28 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, in conjunction with Design West, an agglomeration of seven individual design-related symposia with a common exhibition floor. This is my first time attending this meeting, but I overheard several other folks remarking that it’s good to see attendance is back up after a slump the past two years.

The sensors symposium opened with a panel discussion on the future of MEMS. Rob O’Reilly of Analog Devices, Dave Rothenberg of Movea, and Stephen Whalley of Intel comprised the panel, moderated by Alissa Fitzgerald of AM Fitzgerald & Associates. Intel is a MEMS user and systems designer but not a manufacturer, noting that more standardization is required for greater scalability and a robust foundry infrastructure. Healthcare opportunities range from smart phone consumer apps to implantable devices, and will take greater advantage of printable electronics for end device integration. MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes have been around for 30-40 years, but did not proliferate widely until the price dropped below $5. Other devices that may be poised for their own volume explosion are being hindered by their dependence on expensive TSV solutions for system integration; other system integration architectures must be developed. Whalley opined gyroscopes need to drop below $1 for broader system implementation, but O’Reilly said that this will never happen. There was also some lively misalignments as to whether component margins were adequate. Medical device realms are broadly divided into wearable and implantable, or by clinical devices and lifestyle devices. Either way, FDA approvals will throttle one group severely, while those not requiring such approval will lead the market growth. O’Reilly noted that the MEMS manufacturers are adapting SEMI and JEDEC standards to their industry, but they don’t happen to be MEMS-specific standards. The entry of CMOS foundries like TSMC into MEMS production will likely accelerate the broader adoption of standards. Pricing is an incentive for more implementation of printed electronics, but the requisite manufacturing repeatability is still lacking for many applications. The oil and gas industry has the potential to drive innovation with healthier margins, and without the bureaucratic inhibitors found in medical applications. Energy harvesting MEMS are more likely to prosper with thermoelectric Peltier devices than with piezoelectric vibration harvesters, due to the power density opportunity available.

Nancy Dougherty of Proteus Biomed talked about mindfulness pills for the quantified self. The quantified self is a conceptual platform for self-monitoring of health-related factors based on the premise that you have to be able to measure it before you can fix it. Our national healthcare system is based on population statistics, not on individual metrics. This technology-enabled movement can help change that. Proteus itself designs digestible electronics that can be embedded in pills and report biometric data to a receiver patch worn on the torso, including the identity of the pill and the time it was ingested. An interesting experiment with the use of placebo pills to effect real change in mood can be found at http://theengineeress.com/mindfulness. The pill electronics are powered by opposing calcium and magnesium electrodes that are activated by stomach fluids.

Peter Himes of Silex Microsystems (self-identified as the world’s largest MEMS foundry) gave several examples of MEMS implementation for biomedical applications. MEMS are particular adept for applications in which only very tiny analyte samples are available, though they can also provide significant cost advantages where MEMS functionality can displace bench top equipment alternatives. Microfluidics technology is particularly prevalent in this arena, though devices like micro defibrillators and micro needle patches for drug delivery and bodily fluid sampling also play a large role here.

Alissa Fitzgerald of AM Fitzgerald and Associates described more medical research applications of MEMS technology. Blood pressure cuffs in doctors’ offices have used MEMS pressure sensors since the 1980s; who knew? Contact lenses with a strain sensor to measure intraocular pressure constantly and in real time (made by Sensimed) may displace the need for annual glaucoma testing. Second Sight is commercializing a prosthetic retina that can provide a degree of optical nerve stimulation in lieu of natural sight to circumvent some forms of blindness. The introduction of flexible and biodegradable materials is expanding the repertoire of MEMS tools well beyond its traditional silicon origins.

Jamshid Avloni of Eeonyx Corporation took a look at innovations and applications in interactive fabric sensor technology. Taken to its extreme, this means electronic clothing. The underlying technology is conductive textiles, with coatings that are robust enough to stand up to conventional laundering. Fabric sensors have several advantages over thin film sensors, not the least of which are comfort and invisibility, not in the Harry Potter magic cloak sense but in the sense of presenting nothing foreign or unfamiliar to the user. I’ve already seen a commercial implementation of these materials in a shoe store, where you can step on a platform and get a precise pressure map of your footstep to assist with sizing shoes or designing inserts. Pressure sensing gloves have been used in applications ranging from golf and piano lessons to sniper training. A clean version of paintball has been developed, using rubber balls and impact sensing vests in place of paint, making cleanup a non-issue. A sample of coated material felt no different from conventional clothing fabric. Resistivities of a fabric sample pack ranged from 15 Ω/square to 104Ω/square.

See http://www.eksobionics.com for an example of a biomechanical exoskeleton that makes extensive use of these materials to enable paralyzed people to walk.

 

March 28, 2012 — Akustica, known for its monolithic single-chip digital micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS) devices, introduced its first analog MEMS microphone for mobile handsets, the AKU340.

The analog, 2-chip MEMS design enables more flexibility in product design, said Marcie Weinstein, PhD,  marketing strategist at Akustica. It uses a metal-lid design instead of an LCP substrate seen on Akustica’s digital MEMS. An acoustic port is available on the bottom of the package. The 2-chip design has larger silicon areas, but actually comes in a smaller package than their current single-chip product.

The AKU340 boasts a 63dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and good low-frequency recording with a reduction in sensitivity of less than 5dB at 50Hz. It offers sensitivity matching of -38dBV/Pa +/- 2dB between microphones.

Akustica designs its own MEMS and ASIC die to maintain low power consumption, a smaller package size, and low noise interference between the chips. Akustica uses established surface-micromachining MEMS technology from its parent company Bosch for the device. MEMS components are fully designed and manufactured in-house at Bosch. The metal lid enables RF and EM immunity, and the package is designed for the higher performance requirements of mobile electronics.

While the single-chip digital CMOS MEMS (monolithic ASIC + MEMS) products are primarily used in laptops, the new design targets mobile handsets with faster new product introductions and more price sensitivity. The pin count and footprint (3.35 x 2.5 x 1.0mm) are compatible with second sourcing for the high-volume applications into which Akustica will sell the devices. Akustica foresees using both these technologies in the future — expanding its range in the MEMS market.

The AKU340 will be in mass production in Q3 2012.

Akustica is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bosch Group and a top supplier of silicon microphone products. The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. Learn more about Akustica at www.akustica.com.

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March 19, 2012 — ACUTRONIC released standard, off-the-shelf 2-axis rate tables to test several micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) devices simultaneously. The 21-series is an economical version of the company’s highly customized high-end systems and is primarily made for MEMS manufacturers.

The 21-series tests small inertial measurement units (IMU) or other MEMS sensors. The testers mechanically stimulate MEMS for calibration and performance verification.

An integrated motion controller allows precise measurement and closed-loop control of position, rate, and acceleration. The controller supports a subset of the industry-standard ACUTRONIC Command Language (ACL) for communicating with a host computer.

Suiting use at the MEMS fab, the rate and position tables are designed to handle larger production volumes and integrate easily into the production line.

The 21-series comes in five standard configurations for testing devices used in commercial, medical, industrial, and ground transportation applications.

Access product data at http://www.acutronic.com/fileadmin/cms_files/AUS_DS/Datasheets-2-Axis-Rate-Tables-21-Series.pdf.

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March 14, 2012 — Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) uncrated the Primo TSV200E compact, ultra-high-productivity etch tool for 200mm wafer-level packaging (WLP), micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS), light-emitting diodes (LEDs), CMOS image sensors (CIS), and other 3D IC applications.

The tool boasts a dual-station chamber architecture for faster throughput with single- or dual-wafer processing, integrated pre-heat stations, and a gas delivery design tailored for better uniformity and higher etch rates of through silicon vias (TSVs) in semiconductor die. A de-coupled high-density plasma source and bias increase etch rates at lower pressures and enable process control over a wide process window. This configuration can be extended to accommodate up to three dual-station process modules. An RF pulsing bias capability eliminates profile notching.

Also read: AMEC reactive ion etch tool enables sub-28nm nodes

AMEC claims a 30% capital-efficiency premium over other available TSV etchers. The system is flexible to etch a wide range of wafer-level features, said Tom Ni, VP at AMEC, noting a "constantly evolving" product mix at manufacturers.

Several Primo TSV200E tools are deployed for production at Q Technology Limited (Q Tech) and JCAP Corp. (JCAP) in China, supporting advanced packaging of semiconductors. 3D semiconductor packaging is "a key component of our technology roadmap, said JCAP president C.M. Lai. JCAP is meeting its product development milestones using the AMEC process modules for TSVs. JCAP has placed a repeat order, Lai noted.

AMEC expects orders soon from Taiwan and Singapore. AMEC notes that strong demand should come from China-based companies.

Development of a 300mm version is underway.

More data on the tool can be found at http://amec-inc.com/products/TSV.php.

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