HOWSMALLCANWETAKETHIS-ARTOF

1、Micro-Electrical-Mechanical SystemsSame fabrication techniques usedfor electrical VLSI Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Equipments1750sFirst electrostatic motor (Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Gordon)Silicon discovered1927Field effect transistor patented (Lilienfield) 1947Invention of the transistor (Germaniu

2、m) at Bell TelephoneLaboratories. (23 December)1948Schockley, Bardeen, and Brattain won the Nobel Prize1954C.S. Smith., “ Piezoresistive effect in Germanium andSilicon”1955The IC concept was conceived by several groups, andincluded RCAs Monolithic Circuit Technique for hybrid circuitsPiezo Pressure

3、Sensors1958Silicon strain gauges commercially available1958Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments in 1958, using Ge devices 1959A patent was issued to KilbyA few months later, Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor announced the development of a planar Si IC1961First silicon pressure sensor demonstrated (

4、Kulite)Surface Micromachining1967Invention of surface micromachining (Nathanson, ResonantGate Transistor)Sensors and MicroMirror1970First silicon accelerometer demonstrated (Kulite)1977First capacitive pressure sensor (Stanford)1980K.E. Petersen, “ Silicon Torsional Scanning Mirror”Side Drive Motor1

5、982Disposable blood pressure transducer (Foxboro/ICT, Honeywell, $40)1984First polysilicon MEMS device (Howe, Muller)1988Rotary electrostatic side drive motors (Fan, Tai, Muller)Electro Comb Drive Actuator1989Lateral comb drive (Tang, Nguyen, Howe)Commercial Polysilicon Surface Micromachining1992MCN

6、C starts the Multi User MEMS Process (MUMPs)ADXL and DRIE of SOI1993First surface micromachined accelerometer sold (ADXL50)1994XeF2 used for MEMS1994Bosch process for Deep Reactive Ion Etching is patentedBioMEMS and Optical MEMS1995Bio-MEMS comes of age1998The premiere of Star Wars shown on TIs Digi

7、tal Mirror Device2000Optical fiber switches becomes big businessOptical MEMSProjection displaysDiffractive opticsOptical-fiber switchesAdaptive optics, photonic crystalsSub-wavelength structuresare well suited for implantation in MEMSThis will lower the cost and also add functionalityPromising application areas includeenvironmental monitoringbiomedicinesecurityoptical interconnectssurveillanceoptical wireless communicationsFigure 1. Worldwide and U. S. patents on MEMS as a funct