INTEGRATED MEMS TRANSDUCER AND CIRCUITRY

Abstract

The application relates to integrated MEMS transducers comprising a MEMS transducer structure formed of a plurality of transducer layers and at least one circuit component formed from a plurality of circuitry (CMOS) layers. The integrated MEMS transducer further comprises a conductive enclosure that is integral to the transducer layers and circuitry layers. The at least one circuit component is inside the conductive enclosure whilst the MEMS transducer structure is outside the enclosure.

Claims

1. An integrated MEMS transducer comprising a MEMS transducer structure and at least one circuit component, the integrated MEMS transducer further comprising a conductive enclosure provided such that the at least one circuit component is inside the conductive enclosure, and wherein the MEMS transducer structure is outside the enclosure.

2. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive enclosure comprises a top plate which overlies the circuitry.

3. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 2, wherein the top plate is formed of material that forms at least a part of a layer of the transducer structure.

4. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive enclosure comprises a bottom plate that underlies the circuitry.

5. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive enclosure comprises at least one side wall formed of a plurality of conductive vias which extend through one or more layers of the integrated MEMS transducer.

6. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conductive enclosure comprises a top plate which overlies the circuitry and a bottom plate that underlies the circuitry, wherein the top plate and the bottom plate are connected by a plurality of conductive vias which extend through one or more layers of the integrated MEMS transducer to form side walls of the conductive enclosure.

7. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 6, wherein the top plate comprises a conductive layer that also forms a layer of the MEMS transducer structure.

8. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 4, wherein the bottom plate comprises at least one of an implant layer, a metal layer or a layer of low-resistance silicon.

9. An integrated MEMS transducer comprising a MEMS transducer structure and circuitry provided on a single substrate, wherein the MEMS transducer structure is formed from a plurality of transducer layers and wherein at least one conductive layer deposited during the fabrication of the MEMS transducer structure forms a shield which overlies the circuitry for shielding the circuitry from electromagnetic radiation.

10. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 9, wherein the shield is electrically connected to a conductive layer which underlies the circuitry to form and electrically conductive enclosure around the circuitry.

11. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 10, wherein the circuitry comprises a plurality of CMOS layers and further comprising a plurality of conductive vias which extend through one or more CMOS layers to form side walls of the conductive enclosure.

12. An integrated MEMS transducer as claimed claim 1, wherein the transducer structure comprises a capacitive MEMS transducer comprising a moveable membrane having a membrane electrode and a back-plate having a back-plate electrode.

13. A MEMS transducer package comprising an integrated MEMS transducer as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a package cover which overlies the integrated MEMS transducer.

14. A MEMS transducer package as claimed in claim 13 comprising a package substrate which is electrically connected to the substrate of the integrated MEMS transducer.

15. A method of fabricating an integrated MEMS transducer comprising a MEMS transducer structure and at least one circuit component on a substrate, the method comprising: forming, on a first region of the substrate, a plurality of CMOS layers, wherein the at least one circuit component is formed from one or more of the CMOS layers; forming, on a second region of the substrate, a plurality of transducer layers to form the MEMS transducer structure; wherein said method comprises depositing conductive material which forms a conductive layer of the MEMS transducer structure and which also forms a top-plate which overlies the at least one circuit component, said top-plate being for shielding the circuitry from electromagnetic radiation.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising forming a plurality of conductive vias which extend through one or more of the CMOS layers to connect the top-plate to a bottom plate which is formed beneath the at least one circuit component.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the common layer of conductive material forms a layer of a backplate of the MEMS transducer structure.

18. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the step of forming a plurality of transducer layers comprises forming a plurality of back-plate layers, at least one sacrificial structure and at least one membrane layer such that removal of the at least one sacrificial structure results in a moveable membrane and a rigid back plate.

19. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising depositing at least one metal layer to form a membrane electrode and at least one metal layer to form a back-plate electrode.

20. A method as claimed in claim 19, further comprising: forming an electrical connection between the membrane electrode and one said circuit component; and forming an electrical connection between the backplate electrode and one said circuit component.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0053] For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings in which:

[0054] FIGS. 1a and 1b show a known capacitive MEMS transducer;

[0055] FIG. 2 shows an example cross section through some CMOS circuitry layers according to a typical CMOS process;

[0056] FIG. 3 illustrates an integrated MEMS transducer according to one embodiment of the present invention;

[0057] FIG. 4 illustrates a possible arrangement of conductive vias forming a side wall of a conductive enclosure according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

[0058] FIGS. 5a, 5b, and 5c illustrate an integrated MEMS transducer according to another embodiment of the present invention and incorporating several alternative bottom plate designs.

DESCRIPTION

[0059] The examples described below will be described in relation to the integration of a MEMS microphone with CMOS circuitry. However, it will be appreciated that the general teaching applies to a variety of other MEMS transducers, including loudspeakers and pressure sensors as well as any other MEMS transducer incorporating at least one circuit component that is integrated on a single die.

[0060] FIG. 3 shows an integrated MEMS transducer generally indicated 200 comprising a capacitive MEMS transducer structure 300, circuitry 400 and a conductive enclosure 500. The transducer 300 comprises a moveable membrane 302 having a membrane electrode 303 and a backplate 304 having an embedded backplate electrode 305. The transducer is formed in a first, transducer, region from a plurality of transducer layers or “MEMS” layers 301. The circuitry 400 is formed in a second, circuitry region from a plurality of CMOS layers 401 which are formed by depositing appropriate metal and inter-metal dielectric or inter-layer dielectric materials. In this example, the transducer layers 301 are formed on top of the CMOS layers 401. The circuitry and the MEMS transducer are provided on a substrate 402. In this example the substrate 402 can be considered to form one of the CMOS layers.

[0061] Membrane electrode 303 is routed via one or more electrical interconnects (not shown) and input to one or more of the circuitry components (for example, as referenced “A” in FIG. 3). Backplate electrode 305 is also routed via one or more electrical interconnects (not shown) and input to one or more of the circuitry components (for example, as referenced “B” in FIG. 3). One of the circuitry components is also routed to an output (as referenced “C” in FIG. 3). The enclosure 500, which acts as a Faraday cage for attenuating incident electromagnetic radiation, is preferably but not necessarily grounded (GND).

[0062] In this embodiment, the conductive enclosure 500 is formed from three key components, namely a conductive/metal top plate 501 (or “top”), a deep implant layer 502 (or “bottom”), and side walls 503 (or “side”), which connect the top plate 501 with the deep implant layer 502 to thereby provide a conductive enclosure around the circuitry. The top plate comprises a metal plate formed of at least one metal layer which is compatible with CMOS processing and which exhibits the required conductive properties for attenuating radiofrequency interference. For example, the top plate 501 may conveniently be formed of aluminium or copper.

[0063] In this example a deep implant layer forms a bottom plate 502 of the conductive enclosure 500. The deep implant layer is provided within the silicon substrate 402 and is formed by known means.

[0064] The side walls 503 are preferably formed from conductive vias. The formation of vias through the circuitry layers is achieved by etching holes through the stack of the circuitry layers and then filling the holes with a conductive material. The vias may be continuous trenches which substantially form a complete side wall of the enclosure. Alternatively, the vias may be discrete, preferably closely spaced, elements, or “castelattions”. FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view through the circuitry layers 401 in order to illustrate an offset repeating pattern of the vias 504 which facilitates electrical interconnection of the layers. In effect, the side walls can be considered to be a cage within a cage.

[0065] During fabrication of an integrated MEMS transducer having a conductive enclosure according to embodiments of the present invention, a suitable bottom-plate is formed prior to the deposition of the circuitry and transducer layers. The bottom-plate is formed so as to extend beneath the intended circuitry components formed from the CMOS layers. A number of possible bottom-plate designs may be employed within the scope of embodiments of the present invention which will be discussed with reference to FIGS. 5a to c.

[0066] Following the formation of the conductive back plate, the necessary CMOS circuitry is fabricated in the circuitry region using standard processing techniques that will be appreciated to those skilled in the art such as ion implantation, photomasking, metal deposition and etching. The circuitry may, without limitation, comprise some or all of amplifier circuitry, voltage biasing circuitry, filter circuitry, analogue to digital converters and/or digital to analogues converters, oscillator circuitry, voltage reference circuitry, current reference circuitry and charge pump circuitry. It will be appreciated that the circuitry layers will actually be varied across the circuitry region of the substrate to form distinct components and interconnections between components. The circuitry layers illustrated in FIG. 3, and in all the present examples, are for illustration purposes only.

[0067] Following the fabrication of the CMOS circuitry, a plurality of conductive vias are formed which connect the bottom plate with the intended top plate. Thus, the conductive vias form the side walls of the eventual conductive enclosure.

[0068] Once the CMOS layers have been fabricated the transducer layers are fabricated using techniques that will be known to those skilled in the art. Briefly, the fabrication of the membrane involves fabricating a membrane layer 302 comprising silicon nitride which is deposited using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition process to a thickness of about 0.4 μm for example. A membrane electrode layer is also deposited and patterned to form membrane electrode 303. The membrane electrode may comprise any suitable metal which is compatible with CMOS processing, such as aluminium, and may be deposited by sputtering. The thickness of the membrane electrode may be about 0.05 μm. Back plate layers are then deposited and may preferably comprise the same material as the membrane layer such as silicon nitride. Alternatively different materials may be used for one or more of the backplate layers if desired. The backplate electrode may be conveniently formed from the same metal as the membrane electrode, such as aluminium, and may be of the order of 1 μm thick.

[0069] According to embodiments of the present invention the metal top plate may be formed during one or more of the metallisation steps carried out as part of the formation of the transducer structure.

[0070] Thus, an advantage of embodiments of the present invention is that the enclosure 500 may be fabricated in parallel with the fabrication of the integrated MEMS transducer and circuitry using standard CMOS processing steps to form the elements of the enclosure. In other words, the production of the Faraday enclosure is merged with the production of the integrated MEMS transducer and may be conducted as a continuous process in a single standard CMOS foundry. Thus, the formation of the bottom-plate within, or on top of, the substrate is carried out prior to the deposition of the circuit layers. The via side walls are formed following the fabrication of the circuitry layers and prior to the formation of the transducer layers. Then, the metal top plate is formed, preferably by deposition, during the formation of the metal electrodes of the transducer layers. The method of the present invention therefore offers a truly CMOS process for the fabrication of integrated transducers incorporating a Faraday shield/enclosure.

[0071] FIGS. 5a to 5c show a cross section through an integrated MEMS transducer 600 formed on a silicon wafer 601 according to another embodiment of the present invention and illustrate three alternative bottom-plate designs. The MEMS transducer structure is generally designated 602 and includes a metal membrane electrode and a metal backplate electrode 603a and 603b. CMOS circuitry 610 is provided in a second, circuitry region, of the device. The circuitry is protected from EM interference by the provision of a conductive enclosure which is formed from a metal top-plate 604, a plurality of conductive vias forming side walls 605, and a bottom plate 606 which is configured to electrical connects the four side walls of the enclosure. In FIG. 5a the bottom-plate is formed of a metallisation layer 606 that is formed within the silicon wafer. In FIG. 5b the bottom-plate is formed of an extra-deep implant 607 that is formed within the silicon wafer. In FIG. 5c the bottom-plate is formed of a region of low-resistance silicon that underlies the CMOS circuitry 610. The top-plate 604 forms the top of the conductive enclosure and is comprised of a metalisation layer that is deposited during the deposition of metals layers required for the transducer structure—i.e. for the pair of electrodes and for providing an electrical connection between the transducer structure and the circuitry.

[0072] It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The word “comprising” does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those listed in a claim, “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality, and a single feature or other unit may fulfil the functions of several units recited in the claims. Any reference signs in the claims shall not be construed so as to limit their scope.