CMOS-Integrated Aluminum Nitride MEMS: A Review

Aluminum nitride (AlN) has gained wide interest owing to its high values of elastic modulus, band gap, dielectric strength, resistivity, thermal conductivity and acoustic velocities, especially because it retains most of its properties and versatility in the thin-film form. This review focuses on ap...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of microelectromechanical systems 2022-08, Vol.31 (4), p.500-523
Main Authors: Pinto, Rui M. R., Gund, Ved, Dias, Rosana Alves, Nagaraja, K. K., Vinayakumar, K. B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic properties
AlN
Aluminum
Aluminum nitride
Bulk acoustic wave devices
CMOS
Dielectric strength
Energy harvesting
Flexible components
Gallium nitrides
Gas sensors
III-V semiconductor materials
integration
Lead zirconate titanates
Lithium niobates
Material properties
MEMS
Microelectromechanical systems
Micromechanical devices
Microphones
Modulus of elasticity
monolithic
Piezoelectric effect
Piezoelectricity
Resonators
Sensors
SoC
Strain
Thermal conductivity
Thin films
Transducers
Zinc oxide
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Aluminum nitride (AlN) has gained wide interest owing to its high values of elastic modulus, band gap, dielectric strength, resistivity, thermal conductivity and acoustic velocities, especially because it retains most of its properties and versatility in the thin-film form. This review focuses on applications where the CMOS integration of AlN MEMS has been effectively demonstrated. First, the fundamental concepts of piezoelectricity on polycrystalline c -axis oriented thin-films are introduced and AlN is compared to other common piezoelectric materials, namely LiNbO 3 , LiTaO 3 , quartz, lead zirconate titanate (PZT), ZnO and GaN by thoroughly discussing the material properties, processing and technological implications. After presenting the possible MEMS-CMOS integration strategies, recent demonstrations of AlN-based devices are reviewed, namely energy harvesters, film bulk acoustic resonators (FBAR), contour mode resonators (CMR), gas sensors, imagers, microphones, transducers for chip-scale communication and calorimetric sensors. Finally, other recent applications/integration opportunities are outlined for AlN-based micro-mirrors, flexible sensors and transducers for liquid media and harsh environments. [2022-0006]
ISSN:1057-7157
1941-0158
DOI:10.1109/JMEMS.2022.3172766