Fully-integrated resonant micro-devices for next-generation electronic systems

如今，在消费电子、汽车和工业等几个商业领域，微机电系统（MEMS）已经成为实现用户、环境和系统电子“大脑”之间有效接口的重要载体。特别是谐振型MEMS器件已被广泛证明可以完成包括电信号滤波、惯性传感、超声波转导和气体检测在内的高性能任务。然而，MEMS技术尚未实现其全部颠覆性潜力，因为它仍然主要局限于复杂电子系统中包含的离散集成方案。事实上，缺乏可行的单片集成MEMS和集成电路（IC）的方法，对商业产品施加了功能，性能相关和经济限制，例如：***无法将几个类似或不同类别的MEMS器件集成到单个IC芯片上；***更大的系统尺寸导致多个骰子；***高功耗，因为多个骰子之间的互连相关的电寄生效应；***更高的成本（如材料，加工，物流），由于在不同的骰子上单独的IC和MEMS制造。******因此，拟议的研究计划试图发现并提出以下问题的答案：如何克服当前的技术限制，以实现集成IC和MEMS的全单片下一代系统？******基于先前在单片集成方面实现的进展，我们认为解决我们的研究问题围绕着探索谐振MEMS ic以上集成的最佳方法的长期目标（LTO）。沿着这个LTO推进知识，预计将为系统设计师提供一种方法和技术框架，将MEMS作为集总单元元件无缝地集成到IC上。这个LTO将通过两个短期目标（STO）来实现：为包含压电驱动的最佳谐振MEMS提出新的拓扑结构，并为谐振MEMS的最佳IC集成精心设计一种新的制造平台技术。所提出方法的可行性将由第三个STO进行评估：使用精心设计的拓扑结构和制造平台演示新型集成谐振器件。******随着第二个LTO为HQP提供微技术的多学科专业知识，该研究计划预计将对用于设计和生产基于电子的商业产品的方法，方法和技术产生破坏性影响。因此，这项工作的成果将为加拿大的社会、工业和研究界提供持久的价值。

Nowadays, in several commercial sectors such as Consumer Electronics, Automotive and Industrial, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have established themselves as an essential vector in enabling an effective interface between the user, the environment and a system's electronic "brain". Particularly, resonant-type MEMS devices have been widely demonstrated to fulfill high-performance tasks including electrical signal filtering, inertial sensing, ultrasonic transduction and gas detection. However, MEMS technology has yet to achieve its full disruptive potential because it is still predominantly restricted to discrete integration schemes for inclusion within complex electronic systems. Indeed, the lack of viable methods for monolithically integrating MEMS and integrated circuits (IC) imposes functional, performance-related, and economic limitations on commercial products such as: *** the inability to incorporate several MEMS devices of similar or different class onto a single IC die;*** larger system size resulting from multiple dice;*** high power consumption because of the electrical parasitic effects related to the interconnections between multiple dice;*** greater costs (e.g., materials, processing, logistics) due to separate IC and MEMS fabrication on distinct dice.******Consequently, the proposed research program attempts to discover and propose answers to the question: How can current technological limitations be overcome in order to enable fully-monolithic next generation systems incorporating IC and MEMS?******Founding this program on prior advances realized towards monolithic integration, we hold that solving our research question revolves around the long-term objective (LTO) of exploring optimal approaches for above-IC integration of resonant MEMS. Advancing knowledge along this LTO is expected, at term, to provide system designers with a methodology and technological framework for seamlessly incorporating MEMS as lumped-cell elements on IC. This LTO will be attained by means of two short-term objectives (STO): to propose novel topologies for optimal resonant MEMS incorporating piezoelectric actuation, and to elaborate a novel fabrication platform technology for optimal IC integration of resonant MEMS. The viability of the proposed methods will be assessed by a third STO: to demonstrate novel integrated resonant devices using the elaborated topologies and fabrication platform.******With a second LTO of providing HQP with multi-disciplinary expertise in microtechnologies, this research program is expected to exert a disruptive impact on the approach, methods and techniques used for designing and producing electronics-based commercial products. As such, the outcomes of this work will provide long-lasting value to Canada's society, industry and research community.