Handbook of Silicon Based MEMS Materials and Technologies

Impact of Silicon MEMS—30 Years After

Introduction

Silicon deforms elastically and is a very robust mechanical material. Silicon has small thermal expansion, high speed of sound and very low intrinsic mechanical losses. There exist various methods for both isotropic and anisotropic etching of silicon. The well controlled anisotropic etching of silicon especially has enabled the fabrication of microscale mechanical structures and devices. When these mechanical characteristics and the micromachining are combined with the mass scale manufacturing solutions from the IC industry, we have a platform for producing micromechanical sensors and actuators in huge volumes at low cost.

First mechanical characterization and experiments in chemical wet etching ...