Fabrication Process
Micromachining starts with a silicon wafer or other substrate and grows layers on top. These layers are selectively etched by photolithography and either a wet etch involving an acid or a dry etch involving an ionized gas, or plasma. Dry etching can combine chemical etching with physical etching, or ion bombardment of the material. Surface micromachining can involve as many layers as is needed with a different mask (producing a different pattern) on each layer. Modern integrated circuit fabrication uses this technique and can use dozens of layers, approaching 100. Micromachining is a younger technology and usually uses no more than 5 or 6 layers. Surface micromachining uses developed technology (although sometimes not enough for demanding applications)which is very repeatable for volume production.
Read more about this topic: Surface Micromachining
Famous quotes containing the words fabrication and/or process:
“What preoccupies us, then, is not God as a fact of nature, but as a fabrication useful for a God-fearing society. God himself becomes not a power but an image.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)
“In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)