Methods of preparing nanodevices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9919921-B2
Application number	US-201514604896-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2015
Priority date	Jan 24, 2014
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

The present invention relates to novel nano- and micro-electromechanical devices and novel methods of preparing them. In one aspect, the invention includes methods of preparing a nanodevice. In certain embodiments, the methods comprise coating a polymer layer with a first at least one thin solid material layer using atomic layer deposition (ALD), thus forming an ALD-generated layer. In other embodiments, the methods comprise patterning the first at least one thin solid material layer to form a nanodevice. In yet other embodiments, the methods comprise releasing the nanodevice from the polymer layer.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of generating a nanodevice comprising a multilevel suspended ALD structure, the method comprising:
(a) coating at least a portion of a first solid supporting material layer with a thin solid material using atomic layer deposition (ALD), thus forming a first ALD-generated thin solid material layer;
(b) patterning the first ALD-generated thin solid material layer;
(c) adding an additional solid supporting material layer to the first ALD-generated thin solid material layer;
(d) patterning the additional solid supporting material layer;
(e) coating the additional patterned solid supporting material layer with a second thin solid material using ALD, thus forming a second ALD-generated thin solid material layer;
(f) patterning the second ALD-generated thin solid material layer to form the nanodevice; and,
(g) releasing at least a portion of the nanodevice from the solid supporting material layers, thereby generating a multilevel suspended ALD structure.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first solid supporting material layer and the additional solid supporting material layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a polyimide, a polymethyldisiloxane, a polystyrene, an epoxy, a polypropylene, a poly(methylmethacrylate), a polyethylene, and a poly(vinyl chloride).

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising patterning the first solid supporting layer before the additional solid supporting material layer is patterned.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first and the second ALD-generated thin solid material layers comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a metal, a metal oxide, a semimetal, a semiconductor, and a metal nitride.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first and the second ALD-generated thin solid material layers comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of Ag, Al, Al 2 O 3 , Au, Co, Cu, Fe, GaN, Ge, GeO 2 , HfO 2 , indium tin oxide, Ir, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Rh, Ru, RuO 2 , Si, SiC, SiGe, SiO 2 , SnO 2 , Ta, Ti, TiN, TiO 2 , V 2 O 5 , VO x , W, ZnO, and ZrO 2 .

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the solid supporting material layers is deposited by at least one method selected from the group consisting of evaporation, electroplating, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, reactive ion beam deposition, and atomic layer deposition.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first and the second ALD-generated layers comprises a dielectric layer and/or a metal layer.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first and the second ALD-generated layers has a thickness ranging from about 0.1 nm to about 300 nm.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one selected from the group consisting of the first and the second ALD-generated layers comprises at least two layers, each layer independently comprising Ru, W, Pt, Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , ZnO, or TiO 2 .

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein step (g) comprises at least partial removal of at least one solid supporting material layer by wet or dry etching.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
depositing and patterning an electrically conducting layer on the first solid supporting material layer.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the electrically conducting layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of Ag, Al, Au, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pt, Si, Ti, Ta, W, and an alloy containing one or more of these metals.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first solid supporting material layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of Si, SiO 2 , glass, Si 3 N 4 , sapphire, GaAs, SiC, and a solid organic material.

14. A nanodevice prepared according to the method of claim 1 .

15. The nanodevice of claim 14 , which is a bolometer, a transducer, a temperature sensor, a thermistor, a microbolometer, a microphone, a speaker, an ultrasonic transducer, a resistor, an inductor, a spiral inductor, a flagellum, a flagellum motor, a freestanding nanodevice, a freestanding microdevice, a Bragg reflector, a Bragg filter, an antenna, a terahertz detector, an electromagnetic transformer, or an electrical system.

16. The nanodevice of claim 15 , wherein the nanodevice is a bolometer comprising a radiation absorbing device and bolometer support structure, comprising ALD-generated layers, which is connected to a non-ALD-generated transducing layer.

17. The nanodevice of claim 16 , wherein the radiation absorbing device is connected to the non-ALD-generated transducer layer and connected to the support structure and an underlying read-out integrated circuit to form an entire bolometer device.

18. The nanodevice of claim 14 , which is a radiation absorbing device or bolometer support structure.

19. The nanodevice of claim 14 , having a heat capacity less than about 200 pJ/K.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the additional solid supporting material layer formed in step (d) is patterned to create vias, trenches or other three-dimensional templates.

21. A method of generating a nanodevice, the method comprising:
(a) coating at least a portion of a solid supporting material layer with a thin solid material layer using atomic layer deposition (ALD), thus forming an ALD-generated thin solid material layer;
(b) patterning the thin solid material layer, thus forming a nanodevice; and,
(c) releasing at least a portion of the nanodevice from the solid supporting material layer, thereby generating a suspended ALD structure.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein the solid supporting material layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a polyimide, a polymethyldisiloxane, a polystyrene, an epoxy, a polypropylene, a poly(methylmethacrylate), a polyethylene, and a poly(vinyl chloride).

23. The method of claim 21 , further comprising patterning the solid supporting layer before coating with the thin solid material.

24. The method of claim 21 , wherein the ALD-generated thin solid material layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of a metal, a metal oxide, a semimetal, a semiconductor, and a metal nitride.

25. The method of claim 21 , wherein the ALD-generated thin solid material layer comprises at least one selected from the group consisting of Ag, Al, Al 2 O 3 , Au, Co, Cu, Fe, GaN, Ge, GeO 2 , HfO 2 , indium tin oxide, Ir, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, Rh, Ru, RuO 2 , Si, SiC, SiGe, SiO 2 , SnO 2 , Ta, Ti, TiN, TiO 2 , V 2 O 5 , VO x , W, ZnO, and ZrO 2 .

26. The method of claim 21 , wherein the solid supporting material layer is deposited by at least one method selected from the group consisting of evaporation, electroplating, plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, reactive ion beam deposition, and atomic layer deposition.

27. The method of claim 21 , wherein the ALD-generated layer comprises a dielectric layer and/or a metal layer.

28. The method of claim 21 , wherein the ALD-generated layer has a thickness ranging from about 0.1 nm to about 300 nm.

29. The method of claim 21 , wherein the ALD-generated layer comprises at least two layers, each layer independently comprising Ru, W, Pt,

Assignees

• Univ Colorado Regents
• Drs Network & Imaging Systems Llc

Inventors

• Bright Victor M
• George Steven
• Brown Joseph J
• Eigenfeld Nathan T
• Gray Jason M
• Skidmore George Dee

Classifications

• H01L2924/00

  Electricity · mapped topic

• C23C16/45525

  Atomic layer deposition [ALD] · CPC title

• B81C1/0019 Primary

  Flexible or deformable structures not provided for in groups B81C1/00142 - B81C1/00182 · CPC title

• C23C16/0245

  by etching with a plasma · CPC title

• C23C16/403

  of aluminium, magnesium or beryllium · CPC title