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

如今，在消费电子、汽车和工业等多个商业领域，微机电系统（MEMS）已经成为用户、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高性能任务，包括电信号滤波、惯性传感、超声换能器和气体检测。然而，MEMS技术尚未实现其全部颠覆性潜力，因为它仍然主要限于复杂电子系统中的离散集成方案。实际上，缺乏用于单片集成MEMS和集成电路（IC）的可行方法对商业产品施加了功能、性能相关和经济上的限制，例如：* 不能将类似或不同类别的若干MEMS器件合并到单个IC管芯上;* 由于多个管芯而导致的较大系统尺寸;* 由于与多个管芯之间的互连相关的电寄生效应而导致的高功耗;* 更大的成本（例如，材料、加工、物流），这是因为在不同的芯片上进行单独的IC和MEMS制造。**因此，拟议的研究计划试图发现并提出问题的答案：如何克服当前的技术限制，以实现集成电路和MEMS的全单片下一代系统？*建立在实现单片集成之前的进步这个计划，我们认为，解决我们的研究问题围绕着长期目标（LTO）探索最佳的方法，上面的IC集成谐振MEMS。推进知识沿着这LTO预计，在任期内，提供系统设计师的方法和技术框架，无缝集成MEMS集成电路上的集总单元元件。这LTO将通过两个短期目标（STO）实现：提出新的拓扑结构的最佳谐振MEMS结合压电致动，并阐述了一种新的制造平台技术的最佳IC集成谐振MEMS。所提出的方法的可行性将通过第三个STO进行评估：使用精心设计的拓扑结构和制造平台来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，方法和技术产生颠覆性影响。因此，这项工作的成果将为加拿大的社会、工业和研究界提供长期的价值。

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.