SBIR Phase II: Monolithic CMOS-Integration of Electroplated Copper MEMS Inertial Sensors

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力可能会在消费电子市场(移动手机、平板电脑、游戏机和可穿戴设备)带来一场革命，在这种市场中，高性能、低功耗、占用空间小的多传感(不限于惯性传感)平台和计时设备都直接在普通的ASIC基板上进行微制造。传感器融合可以通过使用从所有传感器收集并使用机器学习算法处理的数据来产生前所未有的用户体验。这将进一步提振传感器和计时市场，预计到2017年，这两个市场的价值将超过60亿美元。此外，新兴的物联网(IoT)和可穿戴市场预计到2025年将达到200亿美元，这将导致此类智能传感器融合市场的快速增长。这可能会产生巨大的社会影响，因为可穿戴设备和物联网系统与移动平台相连接，可以用来监控人们-S的健康、安全和能源消耗。让这些解决方案变得负担得起，将使其不仅适用于美国，也适用于世界各地的低收入家庭。它还将使研究人员获得新的知识前沿，例如在数字传感系统方面。我们的长期目标是提供这种智能传感器融合解决方案。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目旨在通过使用电镀铜(e-Cu)作为结构材料，直接在专用集成电路(ASIC)基板上展示微电子机械系统(MEMS)惯性传感器的晶片规模微制造。MEMS惯性传感器，如陀螺仪和加速度计，广泛应用于消费电子和汽车行业。然而，当前的趋势要求更高的设备性能和更小的占地面积，其中多自由度传感器集成在相同的封装上，以实现新的功能和用户体验。这些要求可以通过在ASIC衬底上单片制造惯性传感器来满足，而用硅作为结构材料很难实现这一点。使用目前用于ASIC金属互连的e-Cu作为结构材料，可以实现更容易的布线，以实现优化的机械结构、更小的尺寸(由于铜的高密度)、极低的成本，因为无需进行晶片键合、更小的外形尺寸、单个管芯上的多个传感器以及更小的寄生电路，从而提供低噪声和更高的性能。第二阶段的任务将是制造晶片规模的惯性测量单元，该单元与其ASIC单片集成，具有最佳的性能参数。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project can lead to a revolution in the consumer electronics market(mobile handsets, tablets, game consoles and wearables), wherein high performance, low power, small footprintmultisensing (not limited to inertial sensing) platforms with timing devices, are all directly microfabricated on a commonASIC substrate. Sensor fusion can produce unprecedented user experiences by using data collected from all sensors andprocessed using machine learning algorithms. This can further boost the sensor and timing markets that are expected toexceed $6 billion dollars by 2017. Moreover, the emergent Internet of Things (IoTs) and wearable markets are expected toreach $20 billion dollars by 2025, which can induce a rapid growth of such intelligent sensor fusion market. This can havea tremendous societal impact as wearable devices and IoT systems, interfaced with mobile platforms, can be used tomonitor people?s health, safety and energy consumption. Making these solutions affordable will make it amenable to lowincome households not only in the US but also around the world. It will also enable researchers to attain new frontiers ofknowledge such as in digital sensory systems. The long-term goals are to provide such intelligent sensor fusion solutions.This Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase 2 project seeks to demonstrate wafer-scale microfabrication ofMicro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) inertial sensors directly on the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)substrates, by using electroplated copper (e-Cu) as a structural material. MEMS inertial sensors, such as gyroscopes andaccelerometers, are pervasively used in consumer electronics and automotive industries. Current trends are, however,requiring higher device performance with smaller footprints, wherein multi-degree-of-freedom sensors are integrated onthe same package, to enable new capabilities and user experiences. These requirements can be met by monolithicallyfabricating inertial sensors on ASIC substrates, which is complex to achieve with silicon as a structural material. Using e-Cu, which is currently used for ASIC metal interconnects, as the structural material, can enable easier routing toimplement optimized mechanical structures, smaller dimensions given the high density of copper, extremely low cost asno wafer bonding is required, smaller form factors, multiple sensors on a single die, and much smaller parasitics providinglow noise and higher performance. Phase II tasks will be to wafer-scale fabricate an inertial measurement unit that ismonolithically integrated with its ASIC with optimal performance parameters.