PIEZOVOLUME · High volume piezoelectric thin film production process for microsystems

This proposal will address high volume production of MEMS (Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems) with a piezoelectric thin film as active element (piezoMEMS). This technology can fulfil many of the requirements of sensors and actuators in tomorrow’s smart systems, as a result of the large displacements, high sensing functionality and high energy densities that can be obtained, compared to pure Si-MEMS. As a consequence, they are very attractive for industries like automotive, aerospace, medical, telecom and consumer electronics. Large European companies tend to buy devices like sensors for their products, rather than to develop processes and devices themselves. European SMEs are natural providers of such devices. However, since there are no automated facilities in Europe for volume production of piezoelectric microsystems, they are not able to commercialize piezoMEMS products. A combined effort by European research institutes, industry and SMEs can close this gap. The main vision of piezoVolume is to provide the means for high throughput, cost-effective and robust manufacturing of piezoelectric microsystems in Europe, where SMEs are both device developers and production technology providers. A set of procedures, guidelines and fabrication tools will be developed, enabling short time to market for new device concepts. piezoVolume will combine three leading research groups in Europe, which are already acting worldwide in the piezoMEMS scientific community, with highly relevant and skilled technological partners, to build a consortium that is able to develop a full production line for piezoMEMS in Europe for the first time. Readily available cost-effective wafer based batch processing of piezoMEMS will lower the threshold for industry acceptance and be the enabling technology to realise new products based on piezoMEMS.