Low-Cost Navigation-grade MEMS Fabrication Platform to Enable PNT Innovations

GE Research has developed a low-cost inertial MEMS process flow to support navigation-grade inertial sensor fabrication called ‘Polaris’ process. With a total of six mask layers, GE Polaris features thick silicon on insulator (SOl) with a 20 to 200 μm device layer, 30:1 high aspect ratio etching, and wafer level vacuum sealing at mTorr with through silicon via technology. The GE multiple-ring gyroscope (MRG) fabricated by the Polaris process has demonstrated navigation-grade performance with proven extreme-temperature reliability and successful integration to a MEMS IMU prototype. GE, through its GE Microfab is now offering Polaris as a foundry process, open to the PNT community.