As a student I did my best to avoid text books – a strange statement for a Professor to make and one that
I should clarify before you put this book down; I did my best to avoid text books that did not help me.
The planarization technology of Chemical-Mechanical-Polishing (CMP), used for the manufacturing of multi-
level metal interconnects for high-density Integrated Circuits (IC), is also readily adaptable as an enabling technology
in MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication, particularly polysilicon surface micromachining. CMP not
only eases the design and manufacturability of MEMS devices by eliminating several photolithographic and film
issues generated by severe topography, but also enables far greater flexibility with process complexity and associated
designs. T
The mature CMOS fabrication processes are available
in many IC foundries. It is cost-effective to leverage the
existing CMOS fabrication technologies to implement
MEMS devices. On the other hand, the MEMS devices
could also add values to the IC industry as the Moore’s law
reaching its limit. The CMOS MEMS could play a key role
to bridge the gap between the CMOS and MEMS
technologies. The CMOS MEMS also offers the advantage
of monolithic integration of ICs and micro mechanical
components.
Five years have passed since the first edition of this book was published.Over the five years,the
world has witnessed a technological revolution headlined by an array of exciting consumer and
industrial products such as the Nintendo Wii, Apple iPod/iPad, sensor-rich smart phones,
phones with cameras,new operating systems for mobile phones and apps,e-books,WiFi,voice-
over-IP calls, social networking, 3D animated movies, and cloud computing, to name the major
ones that affect everyday living
Nowadays sensors are part of everyday life in a wide variety of fields: scientific
applications, medical instrumentation, industrial field, ...and, last but not least,
popular mass production and low-cost goods, like smartphones and other mobile
devices. Markets and business behind the field of sensors are quite impressive.
A common trend for consumer applications is miniaturization which requires, on
one side, a lot of research, development efforts, and resources but, on the other
hand, allows costs and final application size reduction. In this scenario scientific
community and industries are very active to drive innovation.