Massively Parallel Assembly - A low cost high throughput manufacturing process for MEMS.

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Accelerometers, gyroscopes and microphones are just some of the everyday applications ofmicroelectromechanical systems (MEMS) that are now ubiquitous components in consumerelectronic devices. As manufacturers of smart phones and tablets endeavour to shrink theirdevices ever further, so the wasted space separating components in these devices becomesever more inhibiting, both in terms of physical size and cost. Separating the manufacturingprocesses of the MEMS component and the host chip can enable massive space and costsavings to be realised, but only if the process designed to subsequently combine the two islow-cost and high-throughput. NuNano is developing a process of this nature which is capableof addressing 400 MEMS components simultaneously and will demonstrate this by manufacturing probes for atomic force microscopy (AFM).These probes, made from silicon, consist of a cantilever and tip, much akin to a record playercantilever and stylus, but the rest of the silicon area is only used for handling. By separatingthe fabrication of the high-precision functional part of the probe and the bulk chip material,a much greater density of devices per wafer will be realised.