SGIA Journal Graphic November/December 2016 - 25

* Electro-Discharge Micromachining
* Laser Micromachining
* Focused Ion Beam Micromachining
Besides inkjet printheads, MEMS
fabrication applications include the
ma nu fac t u re of pre ssu re sensors,
accelerometers for industrial, automotive
and medical markets, gyros for automotive,
displays, fiber optic switches, alignment
and attenuators, radio frequency relays
and components, drug delivery, and DNA
sequencing and chemical analysis devices
for the biomedical industry.8
MEMS can make inkjet printheads
with smaller features, less weight, greater
precision and lower cost than other
manufacturing methods. MEMS can
fabricate printheads that deliver smaller
volume drops with greater uniformity
among the hundreds to thousands of head
jets. Its advantages have driven printhead
manufacturers to adopt it for their head
manufacture. MEMS also enables denser
nozzle placement, higher-resolution prints,
and higher-frequency drop generation that
results in faster printing speeds.
MEMS evolved from the development
of photolithography and etching for
fabricating semiconductors and integrated
circuits (IC). Also, discoveries of materials,
such as silicon and germanium, supplied
the raw ingredients for many MEMS
applications.
The use of MEMS to fabricate inkjet
printheads begins when Hewlett Packard
(HP) adopted MEMS techniques for
the manufacture of the nozzle plates
and silicon dies for their early thermal
inkjet (TIJ) printheads beginning with
its printhead research and development
in 1977 and 1978. Since then, HP has
generated the most revenue from its MEMS
manufacturing than any other MEMS
user. Yole Development estimated that
for 2015 HP TIJ printheads represented
57 percent of all MEMS inkjet heads and
that thermal inkjet heads represented 85
percent of the MEMS printhead market.12
HP now uses MEMS to make virtually
all of its latest PageWide TIJ technology.
Similarly, MEMJet and Canon with
its FINE (f u ll lit hography nozzle
engineering) system, and Funai (which
acquired Lexmark inkjet in April 2013)
use MEMS to construct their TIJ heads.
Kodak builds its continuous inkjet (CIJ)
heads with MEMS. Epson's PrecisionCore
piezo inkjet (PIJ) and Fujifilm Dimatix's
Samba PIJ heads are MEMS fabricated.
Epson produced 8 percent of MEMS built
heads and Fujifilm Dimatix produced
2 percent in 2015 according to Yole
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MEMS Development Timeline
* 1750s: First electrostatic motors
(Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Gordon)

* 1983: "Infinitesimal Machinery," (R.
Feynman)

* 1824: Silicon discovered (Berzelius)

* 1984-1985: HP introduces its ThinkJet
TIJ printer with printheads constructed
using MEMS technology

* 1927: Field effect transistor patented
(Lilienfield)

* 1985: Sensonor Crash sensor (Airbag)

* 1947-8: Invention of the germanium
transistor at Bell Labs (W. Shockley, J.
Bardeen and W. Brattain)

* 1985: The "Buckyball" discovered

* 1954: "Piezoresistive effect in
Germanium and Silicon," Physical Review,
94.1, April 1954 (C.S. Smith)
* 1958: First integrated circuit (IC) (J.S.
Kilby 195 /Robert Noyce 1959)

* 1986: Silicon wafer bonding (M. Shimbo)
* 1987: Nova Sensors ships MEMS built
blood pressure sensors costing about $5
* 1988: Batch fabricated pressure sensors
with wafer bonding (Nova Sensor)

* 1958: Silicon strain gauges commercially
available

* 1988: Rotary electrostatic side drive
motors (Fan, Tai, Muller)

* 1959: "There's Plenty of Room at the
Bottom" (R. Feynman)

* 1989: Lateral comb drive (Tang, Nguyen,
Howe)

* 1959-61: First silicon pressure sensor
demonstrated (Kulite)

* 1991: Polysilicon hinge (Pister, Judy,
Burgett, Fearing)

* 1967: Anisotropic deep silicon etching
(H.A. Waggener et al.)
* 1967: Invention of surface
micromachining (H. Nathanson, et al.
Resonant Gate Transistor, Westinghouse,
patented 1968)
* 1970: First silicon accelerometer
demonstrated (Kulite)

* 1991: Carbon nanotube discovered
* 1992: Grating light modulator (Solgaard,
Sandejas, Bloom)
* 1992: SCREAM process bulk
micromachining (Cornell)
* 1992: MCNC starts MUMPS foundry
service

* 1971: The invention of the
microprocessor (Intel 4004)

* 1993: Ikuta and Hirowata report
stereolithography used for MEMS
fabrication

* 1977: First capacitive pressure sensor
(Stanford)

* 1993: Texas Instruments ships DLP
displays

* 1977: Texas Instruments begins
development of DLP display technology

* 1993: First surface micro-machined
accelerometer shipped to Saab (Analog
Devices, ADXL50)

* 1977: HP and IBM micro-machine an
inkjet nozzle9
* 1977-1978: Hewlett Packard (HP) begins
its thermal inkjet (TIJ)development and
MEMS research

* 1994: Xenon Difluoride (XeF2) used for
MEMS

* 1980: "Silicon Torsional Scanning Mirror",
IBM J. R&D, v24, p631, 1980 (K. E.
Petersen)
* 1982: "Silicon as a Structural Material",
(K. E. Petersen)

* 1994: Bosch process for deep reactive
ion etching is patented
* 1996: Richard Smalley develops method
for making uniform diameter carbon
nanotubes
* 1999: Optical network switch (Lucent)

* 1982: LIGA process (KfK, Germany)
* 1982: Disposable blood pressure
transducer (Foxboro/ICT, Honeywell, $40)
* 1982: Active on-chip signal conditioning

* 2003: Steve Nasiri founds InvenSense to
manufacture three-axis gyroscopes with
MEMS
* 2009: InvenSense generates revenue of
$100M

* 1983: Integrated pressure sensor
(Honeywell)

* 2009: Knowles Acoustics ships 1 billionth
Sisonic MEMS microphone in seventh
year of sales10,11

* 1983: First polysilicon MEMS device
(Howe, Muller)

SGIA Journal

* 1986: Atomic force microscope invented
(IBM)

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November/December 2016 | 23
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