What is Microelectromechanical system?

Microelectromechanical systems

Microelectromechanical systems in, short MEMS is the art of handling tiny mechanical devices which are empowered by electricity.as the name specifies it combines nano scale,nanotechnology and NEMS(NanoElectromechanical systems).These are aslo some times called as micro machines.MEMS were first practically used when it was fabricated using semi conduction proertied and advanced electronics. The most fmaous MEMS sytem is monolithic resonator.

 

How MEMS works
MEMS works by using the series of processes at different levels. Its basic processes include.

 

 

One of the fundamental  is deposition building blocks in MEMS processing.it  is the capability to deposit thin films of element or material  with a thick No specific locations is pointed for depositing film,they  could be deposit any where between 1 to 100 nm.There are two main  types of desposition.

 

 

 

Physical Deposition.
This type of depostion refers to deposition which belongs to the existing strcuture of material.There are three sub types of deposition process

 

 

 

Chemical deposition deal with the chemical properties and bonding of the concerned material.There are two furher types of chemical deposition.

 

Patterning is a process in which transfer of specific pattern into a material takes place .It involves differnt kind of processes .

Lithography
Lithography when considered in MEMS is the typical  transfer of a pattern into a photosensitive material by huge radiation source selective exposures such as expoure to light. A photosensitive material is that which experiences a huge change in its physical characteristics when exposed to the radiations. Besides lithography many other proceses are used for patterning such as Photolithography, Electron beam lithography, Ion beam lithography, X-ray lithography.

 

 

There are two main categories of etching processes.

 

Wet etching

In the wet etching the material is dissolved in the chemical .This process is also known as chemical etching.Concentarted solution of chemical is required for the proper removal of material by dipping. Chemical nature of wet etching helps in obtaining a good selectivity,which means the material sentivity and etching rate is high.Many kinds of sub etching techniques are present such as.

 

Vapor etching

Xenon difluoride etching

Plasma etching

Sputtering

[Reactive ion etching (RIE)

 

MEMS Manufacturing Materials

Differnt types of manufacturing materials are used to develop the  MEMS according to the required use.These  materials include.

 

Silicon is  used for developing  integrated circuits which are famous in consumer electronics in the present world.Silicon also has important advantages because of its material characteristics.Any required shape can be easily obtained by the silicon

Another useful material used for manufacturing MEMS is polymers which involve wide range of its sub materials. Polymers can be produced in big volumes, with variant material properties.MEMS machines developed using polymers by processes such as injection molding, embossing or stereo lithography.

 

Different kind of metals are also used to create MEMS sub components.Mechanical characteristics of metals are better than silicon. The widely used metals in the creation of MEMS are gold, copper, titanium, silver, aluminium and nickel. These metals can be deposited by the processes like elctroplating and sputtering.

Future preception
MEMS are one of the technologies that are greatly in use and development these days.Iin the future, it is a possibility that consumer sector would be using more advanced form of MEMS.

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