Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer
First Claim
1. A method of producing an integrated circuit/transducer device including a substrate, a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit over a CMOS circuit region on the substrate and a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) element over a cMUT element region on the substrate, the method comprising:
- depositing a first layer over both the CMOS circuit region and the cMUT element region that;
forms a lower electrode over the cMUT element region; and
forms a layer over the CMOS circuit region;
b) depositing a sacrificial layer after step a);
c) depositing a dielectric layer over the CMOS circuit and cMUT element regions after step b);
d) removing the sacrificial layer to form a cavity after step c); and
e) depositing a second layer over both the CMOS circuit region and the cMUT element region after step d) that;
forms an upper electrode over the cMUT element region; and
forms a layer over the CMOS circuit region.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The first integrated circuit/transducer device 36 of the handheld probe includes CMOS circuits 110 and cMUT elements 112. The cMUT elements 112 function to generate an ultrasonic beam, detect an ultrasonic echo, and output electrical signals, while the CMOS circuits 110 function to perform analog or digital operations on the electrical signals generated through operation of the cMUT elements 112. The manufacturing method for the first integrated circuit/transducer device 36 of the preferred embodiment includes the steps of depositing the lower electrode S102; depositing a sacrificial layer S104; depositing a dielectric layer S106; removing the sacrificial layer S108, followed by the steps of depositing the upper electrode S110 and depositing a protective layer on the upper electrode S112.
123 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of producing an integrated circuit/transducer device including a substrate, a complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuit over a CMOS circuit region on the substrate and a capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (cMUT) element over a cMUT element region on the substrate, the method comprising:
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depositing a first layer over both the CMOS circuit region and the cMUT element region that; forms a lower electrode over the cMUT element region; and forms a layer over the CMOS circuit region; b) depositing a sacrificial layer after step a); c) depositing a dielectric layer over the CMOS circuit and cMUT element regions after step b); d) removing the sacrificial layer to form a cavity after step c); and e) depositing a second layer over both the CMOS circuit region and the cMUT element region after step d) that; forms an upper electrode over the cMUT element region; and forms a layer over the CMOS circuit region. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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11. The method of step 1, further comprising depositing a dielectric layer over the CMOS circuit region and cMUT element region between steps a) and b).
Specification