Design and fabrication of a novel bimorph microoptomechanical sensor

We have designed a so-called flip-over bimaterial (FOB) beam to increase the sensitivity of micromechanical structures for sensing temperature and surface stress changes. The FOB beam has a configuration such that a material layer coats the top and bottom of the second material at different regions along the beam length. By multiple interconnections of FOB beams, the deflection or sensitivity can be amplified, and the out-of-plane motion of a sensing structure can be achieved. The FOB beam has 53% higher thermomechanical sensitivity than a conventional one. Using the FOB beam design, we have developed a microoptomechanical sensor having a symmetric structure such that beam deflection is converted into a linear displacement of a reflecting surface, which is used for optical interferometry. The designed sensor has been fabricated by surface micromachining techniques using a transparent quartz substrate for optical measurement. Within a sensor area of 100 /spl mu/m/spl times/100 /spl mu/m, the thermomechanical sensitivity S/sub T/=180 nm/K was experimentally obtained.