Microelectromechanical sensor device with reduced stress sensitivity

• US 10,274,512 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2016
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: STMicroelectronics SRL (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: STMicroelectronics SRL (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Tocchio, Alessandro, Rizzini, Francesco, Guerinoni, Luca
• Primary Examiner(s): Caputo, Lisa M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Campbell, Irving A
• Application Number:
  US15/182,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20170108530A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 2201/0235 Accelerometers
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 2203/0163 Spring holders
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 2207/012 the micromechanical device and the control or processing electronics being separate parts in the same package
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 3/0072 For controlling internal stress or strain in moving or flexible elements, e.g. stress compensating layers
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 7/0048 between the MEMS die and the substrate
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 19/5755 the devices having a single sensing mass
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 1/00 Details of instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 15/125 by capacitive pick-up
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 2015/0814 for translational movement of the mass, e.g. shuttle type

Abstract

A MEMS sensor device provided with a sensing structure, having: a substrate with a top surface extending in a horizontal plane; an inertial mass, suspended over the substrate; elastic coupling elements, elastically connected to the inertial mass so as to enable inertial movement thereof with respect to the substrate as a function of a quantity to be detected along a sensing axis belonging to the horizontal plane; and sensing electrodes, capacitively coupled to the inertial mass so as to form at least one sensing capacitor, a value of capacitance of which is indicative of the quantity to be detected. The sensing structure moreover has a suspension structure, to which the sensing electrodes are rigidly coupled, and to which the inertial mass is elastically coupled through the elastic coupling elements; the suspension structure is connected to an anchorage structure, fixed with respect to the substrate, by means of elastic suspension elements.

Claims

1. A MEMS sensor device comprising:

a substrate having a top surface extending in a horizontal plane;

an inertial mass suspended over the substrate;

elastic coupling elements elastically coupled to the inertial mass and enabling inertial movement of the inertial mass with respect to the substrate as a function of a quantity to be detected along a sensing axis in the horizontal plane;

sensing electrodes capacitively coupled to the inertial mass and forming at least one sensing capacitor;

a suspension structure, the sensing electrodes rigidly coupled to first portions of the suspension structure, the inertial mass being elastically coupled to second portions of the suspension structure by the elastic coupling elements, the suspension structure including electrical-insulation regions that electrically insulate the first portions of the suspension structure from the second portions of the suspension structure, the electrical-insulation regions forming reverse-biased PN junctions with the first portions of the suspension structure and the second portions of the suspension structure adjacent to the electrical-insulation regions;

elastic suspension elements coupled to the suspension structure; and

an anchorage structure fixed with respect to said substrate, the suspension structure being coupled to the anchorage structure by the elastic suspension elements.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the suspension structure frames the inertial mass and defines a window, the sensing electrodes and the inertial mass being arranged in the window of the suspension structure.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic suspension elements are configured to elastically couple the suspension structure to the substrate.

4. The device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic suspension elements are configured to transmit deformations of the substrate in a corresponding manner to the inertial mass and to the sensing electrodes.

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the anchorage structure comprises a plurality of anchorage portions, each of the plurality of anchorage portions being fixed with respect to the substrate, arranged externally to the suspension structure, and coupled to the suspension structure by respective ones of the elastic suspension elements, wherein the elastic suspension elements have a rectilinear conformation.

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of anchorage portions are arranged at vertices of the suspension structure, and the elastic suspension elements extend starting from the vertices towards a respective anchorage portion, and aligned in pairs with opposite inclination with respect to the sensing axis.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein the first portions and the second portions of the suspension structure are set, during operation, at biasing voltages that are different from each other, and wherein the inertial mass is electrically biased through the elastic coupling elements.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein the inertial mass includes mobile electrodes capacitively coupled to said sensing electrodes and forms the at least one sensing capacitor;

and wherein the mobile electrodes and the sensing electrodes are arranged in a comb-fingered configuration.

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic coupling elements are compliant to bending along said sensing axis enabling the inertial movement of the inertial mass.

10. The device according to claim 9, wherein the elastic coupling elements each comprise:

a first connecting portion having a rectilinear extension and a first end coupled to the suspension structure;

a second connecting portion having a rectilinear extension and a respective first end coupled to said inertial mass; and

a deformation portion that is coupled between the first and second connecting portions and has the shape of a rectangular ring having a longitudinal axis that is transverse to the rectilinear extensions of the first and second connecting portions.

11. The device according to claim 1, wherein the elastic suspension elements are rigid to movements along the sensing axis.

12. The device according to claim 1, further comprising an electronic reading circuit electrically coupled to the MEMS sensor device, the electronic reading circuit being configured to process a variation of capacitance of the at least one sensing capacitor as a function of the quantity to be detected.

13. The device according to claim 12, wherein the MEMS sensor device and the electronic reading circuit form an accelerometer configured to detect acceleration along the sensing axis.

14. A method for manufacturing a MEMS sensor device, the method comprising:

forming an inertial mass suspended over a surface of a substrate;

forming elastic coupling elements, wherein the elastic coupling elements elastically are coupled to the inertial mass so as to enable inertial movement of the inertial mass with respect to the substrate;

forming first sensing electrodes coupled to the inertial mass;

forming a suspension structure and second sensing electrodes that are rigidly coupled to first portions of the suspension structure so as to form at least one sensing capacitor

wherein the inertial mass is elastically coupled to second portions of the suspension structure by the elastic coupling elements, wherein the suspension structure is coupled to an anchorage structure fixed with respect to the substrate by elastic suspension elements; and

forming electrical-insulation regions in the suspension structure, the electrical-insulation regions electrically insulating the first portions of the suspension structure from the second portions of the suspension structure, the electrical-insulation regions forming reverse-biased PN junctions with the first portions of the suspension structure and the second portions of the suspension structure adjacent to the electrical-insulation regions.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the inertial movement of the inertial mass is a function of a quantity to be detected along a sensing axis belonging to a horizontal plane of the surface of the substrate.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the elastic suspension elements are rigid to movements along the sensing axis.

17. An electronic device comprising:

a microprocessor; and

a MEMS sensor coupled to the microprocessor, the MEMS sensor including;

a substrate having a first surface;

a plurality of anchors coupled to the first surface of the substrate;

a plurality of elastic suspension elements coupled to the plurality of anchors, respectively;

a suspension structure suspended relative to the first surface of the substrate by the plurality of elastic suspension elements, the suspension structure being substantially rigid in a first direction and having a central axis, the suspension structure including first, second, third, and fourth electrical-insulation regions that electrically insulate first portions of the suspension structure from second portions of the suspension structure, the first and second electrical-insulation regions being on a first side of the central axis, the third and fourth electrical-insulation regions being on a second side of the central axis, at least one of the first or the second electrical-insulation regions being asymmetrically arranged with respect to the third and fourth electrical-insulation regions relative to the central axis;

an inertial mass suspended relative to the first surface of the substrate;

elastic coupling elements elastically coupled to the inertial mass and to the first portions of the suspension structure, the elastic coupling elements enabling movement of the inertial mass with respect to the substrate in the first direction; and

sensing electrodes coupled to the second portions of the suspension structure, the sensing electrodes being capacitively coupled to the inertial mass and forming sensing capacitors, respectively.

18. The electronic device according to claim 17, wherein the inertial mass is located in an opening of the suspension structure.

19. The electronic device according to claim 17, wherein the electronic device is at least one of a mobile phone, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a portable computer, a wearable device, a digital audio player, a photographic camera, a video camera, and a controller for videogames.

20. The electronic device according to claim 17, wherein the suspension structure has a shape having a plurality of corners, the plurality of anchors are arranged at a respective one of the plurality of corners of the suspension structure.