Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems or MEMS, are an achievement of this
era and revolutionized the semiconductor industry. It is the amalgamation of
microelectronics with micromachining technology. Though the term mechanical is
one of the keywords of MEMS but not necessarily, micromachined devices should
not contain mechanical parts always. Machine means cutting tools. In MEMS
technology, the micron-level substrates are cut down to fabricate the device. The
primary purpose of MEMS technology is miniaturization with low power
consumption. The term MEMS can be described in many ways. In a single sense,
MEMS is a platform on top of which some common microscopic mechanical parts,
e.g., channels, holes, cantilevers, membranes, cavities, and other structures, can be
fabricated. Though micromachining is associated with MEMS, still the structures are
not machined. Instead, they are created using micro-fabrication technology suitable
for batch processing for integrated circuits.
Keywords: Bulk micromachining, CMOS compatibility, MEMS materials, Surface micromachining.
