santa barbara, ca, december 27, 2001

Innovative Micro Technology has recently expanded their fab, already one of the largest in the MEMS industry, to 30,000 square feet of active class 100 fabrication area, plus 4000 square feet of assembly/packaging space. Their high-volume fab provides ±1°F temperature control and ±3% relative humidity control. Added to the fab as part of the expansion is wafer bonding (anodic, eutectic, Si fusion, glass frit, etc.) capability for up to three wafers, allowing IMT to build more complex structures and devices, such as microfluidic systems.

The new Karl Suss SB6 wafer bonding system augments IMT's extensive suite of tools for design, prototyping and manufacturing of MEMS devices. Highlighted capabilities include high-resolution photolithography to 0.35µm, deep reactive ion etch for high-aspect ratio structures (up to 10:1), and the full suite of metals and dielectric deposition/etch, including magnetic materials, to provide maximum flexibility in MEMS design and processing. IMT also provides wafer-and die-level device test and metrology (FIB, SEM, TEM, EDX, AFM, etc) as well as reliability testing capabilities.

According to Monte Heaton, VP Marketing and Sales, "To our knowledge, ours is the largest pure MEMS fab of any independent MEMS manufacturer. When you include the chase, maintenance and assembly and packaging areas, IMT's fab is well over 40,000 square feet."

Adds John Foster, IMT's CEO, "Our customers are telling us that our experience making complex devices, both in prototyping and in volume, along with our high-resolution photolithography, deep RIE and metals suite, make us a unique partner for many applications."