Abstract
Inertial Sensors represent a very successful application field for MEMS technology, having evolved from the first pioneering works in the early 1980s to the current pervasion in consumer, automotive, and Industrial applications.
The main working principles and design considerations regarding MEMS accelerometers and gyroscopes are described in Sects. 13.2 and 13.3, with emphasis on the interaction between process parameters and product performances.
Section 13.4 describes ST Microelectronics THELMA technology for inertial MEMS, with a detailed analysis of process flow. THELMA is an acronym for “Thick Epitaxial Layer for Micro-gyroscopes and Accelerometers” since the MEMS structural layer for this technology is a thick polysilicon film. Specific challenges of Wafer Level Packaging and hermetic vacuum encapsulation through getter technology for inertial MEMS gyroscopes and inertial 6-axis modules are described in the second part of this section.
Specific flavors of THELMA technology aiming at performance improvement and die area shrinkage are described in the following part of Sect. 13.4, such as THELMA-60 with increased structural layer thickness to 60 micron in order to increase accelerometer performances, Smeraldo, and Via-First technologies to realize Through Silicon Vias (TSV) and ThELMA-PRO (where PRO stands for PROtective), which by the introduction of protective coating on the permanent silicon dioxide layer allows to shrink the device area.
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Allegato, G., Corso, L., Valzasina, C. (2022). Inertial Sensors. In: Vigna, B., Ferrari, P., Villa, F.F., Lasalandra, E., Zerbini, S. (eds) Silicon Sensors and Actuators. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80135-9_13
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