Fabrication of SiO2-stacked diamond membranes and their characteristics for microelectromechanical applications

Diamond is a promising microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) material due to its high Young's Modulus and very large thermal conductivity. In this work, ultrananocrystalline diamond was stacked between silicon dioxide to form thermally-stable and robust membranes. These SiO2-stacked diamond layers were processed into MEMS-compatible membranes. For comparison, membranes composed of only SiO2 were fabricated as well. The structural characteristics of these membranes are compared and analyzed for membranes of different diameters. Using finite element modeling, the experimental behaviors of SiO2 and SiO2-stacked diamond membranes are analyzed. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.