Piezoelectric Microsystem Technologies

Research Foci

• Design and conception of thin film unimorph and multimorph piezoelectric based microsystem transducers (PMUT, SAW/BAW, micromirrors, microphone, microspeakers etc.)
• Integration of high quality piezoelectric thin films (AlN, AlScN, PZT) on 200-mm Si and SOI wafers in novel microfabrication processes
• Development of dedicated characterization setups for the characterization of acoustic MEMS and optical MEMS.

Research competencies

• Design and conception of thin film piezoelectric based microsystem transducers for more than ten years (PMUT, SAW/BAW, micromirrors, microphone, microspeakers etc.); use of FEM modelling as well as in-house developed analytical design tools
• Fabrication processes and processes flows on 200-mm Si and SOI wafers (incl. sputter deposition and structuring of AlN, AlScN, PZT, electrode and passivation layer structuring, top and backside etching of silicon, vacuum wafer level packaging of MEMS)
• Wafer-level process metrology as well as piezoelectric thin films characterization
• Chip-level characterization of MEMS using dedicated characterization set ups (e.g., optical scan angle of micromirrors) as well as standard setups (laser doppler vibrometry, Digital Holographic Microscopy)

Applications

• Micromirror for miniaturized pico-projectors and road lighting
• Microphones for accurate measurements of pressure fluctuation
• Microphones for gas sensing applications
• PMUT for high resolution intracardiac medical imaging
• SAW/BAW for high frequency RF filters and biological sensors