Development of CMOS-based Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers Operated in Collapse-mode

• Main Authors: Wei-Cheng Chung, 鍾威正
• Other Authors: Wei-Cheng Tian
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/00860602134244627574

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 電子工程學研究所 === 102 === In this work, experimental results of Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUTs) operated in collapse-mode is presented. The device is implemented with the TSMC 0.35μm CMOS-MEMS process. Through the surface profile measured by a confocal microscope, the collapsed voltage is measured at approximately 50 ~ 60V. With a bias voltage over the collapse voltage, the receiving sensitivity of CMUTs is increased 4 times larger and the center frequency is shifted from 2.7MHz to 7.9MHz. Driven by a commercial pulser, the received echo signal using our device in traditional mode is 2.625Vpp and the fractional bandwidth is 132%. Affected by the deep-collapse operation, the largest received echo signal reaches 3.427Vpp and the fractional bandwidth reduced to approximately 40 ~ 45%. The CMUT center frequency shifts from 3.12MHz to 9.12MHz. We also present an improved wet etch process to significantly increase the yield to almost 100%. Depositing thicker sealing membrane material ensures the robustness of CMUTs. Our developed CMUTs operated in DC bias of 90V in a water tank for over half an hour was demonstrated.