High-aspect-ratio bulk micromachining of titanium

Recent process developments have permitted the highly anisotropic bulk micromachining(1) of titanium microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS). By using the metal anisotropic reactive ion etching with oxidation (MARIO) process, arbitrarily high-aspect-ratio structures with straight sidewalls and micrometre-scale features have been bulk micromachined into titanium substrates of various thicknesses, ranging from 0.5-mm sheet down to 10-mum free-standing titanium foils. Bulk micromachined structures are generally free of residual stresses and are preferred when large, rigid, flat and/or high-force actuators are desired(2). However, so far there has been a limited ability to select materials on the basis of specific application in bulk micromachining, primarily because of the predominance of MEMS processes dedicated to single-crystal silicon, such as silicon deep reactive ion etching(3). The MARIO process permits the creation of bulk titanium MEMS, which offers potential for the use of a set of material properties beyond those provided by traditional semiconductor-based MEMS. Consequently, the MARIO process enables the fabrication of novel devices that capitalize on these assets to yield enhanced functionalities that would not be possible with traditional micromechanical material systems.