Process control of cantilever deflection for sensor application based on optical waveguides

Jiang, Fei and Keating, Adrian and Martyniuk, Mariusz and Pratap, Rudra and Faraone, L and Dell, JM (2013) Process control of cantilever deflection for sensor application based on optical waveguides. In: Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, 22 (3). pp. 569-579.

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Abstract

This paper reports on the fabrication of cantilever silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguides and presents solutions to the challenges of using a very thin 260-nm active silicon layer in the SOI structure to enable single-transverse-mode operation of the waveguide with minimal optical transmission losses. In particular, to ameliorate the anchor effect caused by the mean stress difference between the active silicon layer and buried oxide layer, a cantilever flattening process based on Ar plasma treatment is developed and presented. Vertical deflections of 0.5 mu m for 70-mu m-long cantilevers are mitigated to within few nanometers. Experimental investigations of cantilever mechanical resonance characteristics confirm the absence of significant detrimental side effects. Optical and mechanical modeling is extensively used to supplement experimental observations. This approach can satisfy the requirements for on-chip simultaneous readout of many integrated cantilever sensors in which the displacement or resonant frequency changes induced by analyte absorption are measured using an optical-waveguide-based division multiplexed system.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
Publisher:	IEEE
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to IEEE.
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	18 Jul 2013 06:53
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2013 06:53
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/46858

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