Application of Silicon on Nothing Structure for Developing a Novel Capacitive Absolute Pressure Sensor

In the field of silicon on nothing (SON) structure , micrometer-thick monocrystalline layers suspended over their parent wafer were produced by high-temperature annealing of specific arrays of trenches. Those trenches reorganize into one single void and leave a thin overlayer on top. Since this method may be an easy way of synchronous fabricating high-quality silicon films and vacuum void, this paper investigates its potential applications for a pressure sensor. A capacitive absolute pressure sensor whose pressure sensitive membrane is formed by the SON structure was fabricated and evaluated. The radius and thickness of the sensitive membrane are 100 and 1.7-μm, respectively. The average sensitivity of the sensor array with 15 diaphragms is 2.88 fF/kPa. This novel fabrication process enables to easily form a high vacuum cavity without hermetical sealing process such as anodic bonding technology, to achieve an excellent long-term stability and reliability, in particular, and to easily integrate detection circuits with the sensor.