Design and Fabrication of Silicon Membrane by Wet

A silicon membrane is very important part of the MEMS (Micro-Electro-M echanical System) devices or itself is a useful device. The design and simulation has been performed in COVENTORW ARE® for the fabrication of membrane. The thickness of Piezoelectric actuator is assumed 9mm as this is the thickness of commercially available Lead Zircon ate Titanate (PZT) actuator. Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) is used as etch ant of silicon for the realisation of 75J1m thick silicon membrane. The micromachining is carried out at 70'C using 44% KOH solution. The etch rate depends on the etchant concentration as well as temperature. The etch rate of silicon decreases with the increase of KOH concentration and increases with the increase of temperature. The membrane is designed and fabricated for high fluid pressure application of piezoelectric actuated devices.