Dual Exposure Glass Layer Suspended Structures: A Simplified Fabrication Process for Suspended Nanostructures on Planar Substrates

Document Type

Article

Department

Physics (Pomona)

Publication Date

2001

Keywords

micromechanical resonators, nanotechnology, annealing, glass, Q-factor, spin coating, electron beam lithography, light interferometry

Abstract

We have developed and demonstrated here a simplified flexible fabrication process for glass nanomechanical systems. This process uses a single layer of spin on glass (SOG) material with two negative tone electron beam exposures at two different exposure energies to define the suspended and support structures, respectively. After development the SOG can be converted into glass. The process is additive and can be applied to any flat substrate. We have fabricated a variety of glass nanomechanical oscillators and measured their mechanical resonances using a mechanical piezoelectric driving force and optical interferometric detection. Suspended structures were fabricated with thickness of less than 50 nm and lateral dimensions of less than 100 nm supported anywhere from 150 to 800 nm above the substrate. Resonance frequencies for glass wires with both ends fixed (cross section 110 nm×180 nm) and lengths of 4–9 μm range from 7 to 30 MHz, with quality (Q) factors of over 1000. Annealing the structures in an oxygen ambient roughly doubles both the frequencies and the Q factors.

Rights Information

© 2001 American Vacuum Society

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