PROCESS FOR FABRICATION OF 3-DIMENSIONAL MICROMECHANISMS

摘要

This invention provides a fabrication process for manufacturing of truly 3-dimensional micromechanisms which takes advantages of SOI (silicon-on-insulator) wafers each of which is processed to create a respective structural element of the 3-dimensional micromechanisms by DRIE (deep reactive ion etching) of the wafer and thermal oxidation of the trenches opened during the DRIE etching. The wafers are sequentially bonded into a multistack structure from which the 3-D micromechanism is released by XeF2 etching. Thermally grown SiO2 is used as structural material for the 3-D micromechanism.