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3.5 Actuator Fabrication
V-beam actuators with lengths of 1000 mm and 1200 mm were fabricated from the same SOI wafer type that was used for the 3DMEMS sld layer, in which a 2 mm oxide layer separates the heavily-doped 50 mm active layer from the wafer substrate. Thermal evaporation was used to cover the wafer with a uniform 40 Å chromium / 1000 Å gold layer. This layer was then patterned to provide electrical connectivity to the anchors.
After patterning the wafer with AZ9245 photoresist, DRIE was used to etch completely through the active layer, defining the actuators and anchors. An HF etch was used to release the beams. Further process details can be found in Appendix B.