Prospects for MEMS on high-index silicon combining bulk micromachining and PolyMEMS INAOE technology

High-index silicon substrates are proposed as an alternative for the development of a new type of microsystems. Both bulk and surface micromachining techniques could be developed in combination with MOS circuits, offering new possibilities of applications, based on a combined intra- and post-processing approach without affecting the interface atomic texture of high-index substrates. As an example of microsystems on high-index silicon we present a culture cell design which can be developed taking into account the advantages of bulk micromachining and CMOS circuits. This example clarifies the aim of the new high-index silicon MEMS technology proposed in this work.