Cavendish Ushers in Next Generation of MEMS  and IC Integration

Embedded Encapsulation
Integrated Circuits and MEMS can now be fully integrated – not just in the sense of being in the same package – but embedded within the IC.  Cavendish Kinetics’ patented process allows MEMS components to be incorporated into the integrated circuit durinfg the fabrication process.  Using standard Back End of Line equipment and materials used in CMOS, BICMOS, SiGe or SOI processing, Cavendish embeds the MEMS components within cavities which resides between any two metal layers of a chip.

As part of the production process, the inside of the cavities are never exposed to ambient air and are fully sealed during processing.  Thus there is no issue of contaminants in the cavity after production and no special packaging is required. The cavity has passed rigorous wafer-level qualification and testing and can be incorporated into any planarized process at any layer in the metal stack.  A variety of sizes, shapes and features are possible which enable a variety of applications.

Arrays of Cavities
The cavities are small so that millions of individual cavities may reside on an IC and may contain the same or different devices. A nonvolatile memory array consists of thousands of cavities, each one containing either a single cantilever or multiple cantilevers. Another example is an array of 1000 capacitive switches configured to be a digitally controlled variable capacitor providing resolution in the Femtofarad range and span from a few Femtofarad to a few Picofarad.

With the cavity in the top layer and sealed with light-transmissive materials, the cavities are ideal for sensing light across a variety of spectra. IR sensors, light meters, and reflective light switches are now possible to build within a standard semiconductor fab line.