Super Slim Automotive Acceleration Sensor Fabrication Process Developed by Applying Surface MEMS Technology 2006-01-1464

We have developed a novel capacitive acceleration sensor fabrication process by applying surface MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) technology and successfully introduced this process for volume production of a new super slim sensor. The new process uses the ICP-RIE(Inductively Coupled Plasma - Reactive Ion Etching) technology to etch single crystal SOI(Si on Insulator wafers. In this technology, vertical Si etching is followed by, lateral etching along the buried oxide to release the movable electrode. Because of a dry process, the new process does not cause the movable structures to stick to each other. Our process uses only three masks and reduces the sensor chip size to a half that of our conventional capacitive acceleration sensors.