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Journal of Materials Science and Nanotechnology | Volume 3
February 25-26, 2019 | Paris, France
Materials Science and Engineering
2 nd International Conference on
MEMS at Bosch: Products and technology demands
Andrea Urban
Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) at Bosch
look back on more than 25 years of development and
production. MEMS elements are small mechanical systems,
acting either as sensors or as actuators. From the historical
point of view MEMS manufacturing technology started based
on the established silicon semiconductor process technology.
In contrast to semiconductor components, MEMS sensors
and actuators are 3-dimensional movable elements. This
required the development of additional, new and application
specific MEMS manufacturing technologies besides typical
semiconductor processes. Nowadays, some of these specific
processes are MEMS key manufacturing technologies. Silicon
Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE), also known as the “Bosch
Process“, is one of the worldwide established MEMS key
manufacturing processes on the market. The starting point of
this plasma trench etch process for silicon dates back to the
development in the early 1990’s at Bosch Corporate Research
Center on a prototype equipment. With the “Bosch Process”
3-dimensional structures in silicon can be etched with high
etch rates and high aspect ratios at high mask selectivity and
without restrictions in crystal orientation. This plasma etch
process was an enabler for a large variety of interesting bulk
and surface micro machined MEMS products, which nowadays
penetrate and support the daily life of all of us. Throughout
the years, a wide base of equipment suppliers for MEMS key
manufacturing processes and tools established on the market.
MEMS provides low-cost mass products like microphones,
micro mirrors, pressure and inertial sensors for automotive,
consumer and IoT applications. Autonomous driving or virtual
reality as new applications are increasingly pushing inertial
sensors performance improvements like higher sensitivity and
resolution. A close co-operation between equipment suppliers
and MEMS manufacturers helps to improve equipment
hardware and processes in parallel to product development, in
order to fulfil enhanced MEMS product requirements for the
future.
Speaker Biography
Andrea Urban is a senior expert working on the development of new process technologies
and their transfer into series production for upcoming generations of MEMS sensors. She
completed her diploma in Materials Engineering and Surface Technologies in 1992 at
Fachhochschule Aalen, Germany. She joined the Robert Bosch GmbH Corporate Research
and Technology Center in Stuttgart, Germany in 1992. She is working as a technology
specialist mainly related to inertial sensor manufacturing, which strongly influenced the
development and installation of MEMS acceleration sensors and gyroscopes for mass-
manufacturing in Bosch’s production line. She is the co-inventor of the “Bosch Deep
Reactive Ion Etching Process”. She entrusted with the co-ordination of the European
Semiconductor Equipment Asessment I-SPEEDER project, which had a significant impact
on the equipment tool basis for advanced Deep Reactive Ion Etching. She joined in 2003
the new founded Engineering Sensor Process Technology division at Robert Bosch GmbH,
Reutlingen, Germany.
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