Carr, William N. (Committee chair)
Misra, Durgamadhab (Committee member)
Ravindra, N. M. (Committee member)
Grieco, Michael J. (Committee member)
Date:
1993-05
Keywords:
Tantalum Silicide.
Capacitor motors--Design and construction.
Availability:
Unrestricted
Abstract:
Tantalum silicide was studied as an alternative microelectromechanical material by fabricating a rotary micromotor utilizing a proven design. This material was used for the rotor, stators, and bearing over a silicon substrate. It has the attraction of potentially reducing the friction which is a major problem with polysilicon-to-polysilicon bearings.
The necessity of high aspect ratio features required that a plasma or reactive ion etch with a high degree of anisotropy be developed to etch tantalum silicide films in excess of 1.5μm. A sulfur hexafluoride/Freon 115 plasma provided the necessary process control during the etches. The stress present in annealed tantalum silicide films made it necessary to limit the maximum processing temperature to 300°C. These low temperature tantalum silicide films have thus far proved to be inadequate as a microelectromechanical material for the micromotor due to their inability to withstand the hydrofluoric acid release etch.
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