Piezoresistive silicon nanowire resonators as embedded building blocks in thick SOI

TY - JOUR

T1 - Piezoresistive silicon nanowire resonators as embedded building blocks in thick SOI

AU - Nasr Esfahani, Mohammad

AU - Kilinc, Yasin

AU - Cagatay Karakan, M.

AU - Orhan, Ezgi

AU - Hanay, M. Selim

AU - Leblebici, Yusuf

AU - Erdem Alaca, B.

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the support by Tubitak under Grant no. 112E058. MNE was supported by the Tubitak-BIDEB 2216. This work was also supported by ISTKA under Grant TR10/16/YNY/0103 ‘Nanotechnology Platform for the Accessible and Sustainable Pilot Fabrication of High-Added-Value Products’.

PY - 2018/2/15

Y1 - 2018/2/15

N2 - The use of silicon nanowire resonators in nanoelectromechanical systems for new-generation sensing and communication devices faces integration challenges with higher-order structures. Monolithic and deterministic integration of such nanowires with the surrounding microscale architecture within the same thick crystal is a critical aspect for the improvement of throughput, reliability and device functionality. A monolithic and IC-compatible technology based on a tuned combination of etching and protection processes was recently introduced yielding silicon nanowires within a 10 μm-thick device layer. Motivated by its success, the implications of the technology regarding the electromechanical resonance are studied within a particular setting, where the resonator is co-fabricated with all terminals and tuning electrodes. Frequency response is measured via piezoresistive readout with frequency down-mixing. Measurements indicate mechanical resonance with frequencies as high as 100 MHz exhibiting a Lorentzian behavior with proper transition to nonlinearity, while Allan deviation on the order of 3-8 ppm is achieved. Enabling the fabrication of silicon nanowires in thick silicon crystals using conventional semiconductor manufacturing, the present study thus demonstrates an alternative pathway to bottom-up and thin silicon-on-insulator approaches for silicon nanowire resonators.

AB - The use of silicon nanowire resonators in nanoelectromechanical systems for new-generation sensing and communication devices faces integration challenges with higher-order structures. Monolithic and deterministic integration of such nanowires with the surrounding microscale architecture within the same thick crystal is a critical aspect for the improvement of throughput, reliability and device functionality. A monolithic and IC-compatible technology based on a tuned combination of etching and protection processes was recently introduced yielding silicon nanowires within a 10 μm-thick device layer. Motivated by its success, the implications of the technology regarding the electromechanical resonance are studied within a particular setting, where the resonator is co-fabricated with all terminals and tuning electrodes. Frequency response is measured via piezoresistive readout with frequency down-mixing. Measurements indicate mechanical resonance with frequencies as high as 100 MHz exhibiting a Lorentzian behavior with proper transition to nonlinearity, while Allan deviation on the order of 3-8 ppm is achieved. Enabling the fabrication of silicon nanowires in thick silicon crystals using conventional semiconductor manufacturing, the present study thus demonstrates an alternative pathway to bottom-up and thin silicon-on-insulator approaches for silicon nanowire resonators.

KW - nanowire resonator

KW - NEMS

KW - piezoresistive readout

KW - semiconductor manufacturing

KW - silicon nanowire

KW - top-down fabrication

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042546209&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/1361-6439/aaab2f

DO - 10.1088/1361-6439/aaab2f

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85042546209

SN - 0960-1317

VL - 28

JO - Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

JF - Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering

IS - 4

M1 - 045006

ER -