Belgian research organisation IMEC has revealed an 11Mpixel micromirror device at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco.

"The 10cm² array has a pixel density that is almost double that of comparable state-of-the-art micromirrors," said IMEC, "And we have demonstrated that its mirrors show no creep and meet a 10¹² cycles mechanical lifetime."

Poly-SiGe was chosen as structural material for the mirrors, instead of aluminium. "Poly-SiGe solves many of the reliability issues of aluminium-based mirrors, and it is compatible with above-CMOS processing," said IMEC. "It meets the mirror's mechanical reliability requirements, device flatness, and compatibility with high-speed CMOS."

The array of 8x8µm mirrors was built using a proprietary SiGe-based MEMS process on top of foundry high-voltage 0.18µm CMOS 200mm wafers with six interconnect levels. "On customer demand, the solution can

be migrated to our 300mm fab," said IMEC.

Applications are expected in video projection and lithography mask writers.

Figure 1. 8x8µm mirrors and hinges

Figure 2. Mirrors over six layers of interconnect and CMOS control circuitry.

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