MEMS Foundry → Capabilities
MEMS Foundry Capabilities: U.S.-Based Wafer Processing from Prototype to Production
Rogue Valley Microdevices delivers complete MEMS foundry capabilities from our U.S. fabrication facilities, supporting your device from first process exploration through scalable manufacturing. As a U.S.-based pure-play MEMS foundry, we bring thin film deposition, photolithography, etching, and process integration together under one roof, so your wafers never leave our fab between critical steps.
Every process runs in-house on production-capable equipment with controlled manufacturing workflows. That integration reduces development risk, improves wafer-to-wafer consistency, and shortens the path from prototype to production.
Our capabilities support MEMS sensors, microfluidics, photonics, and specialty semiconductor devices across healthcare, industrial sensing, aerospace and defense, and communications markets.
Why Choose Rogue Valley Microdevices
MEMS Foundry Capabilities That Cover the Complete Process Flow
Our foundry provides a broad portfolio of front-end wafer processing capabilities designed to support complex MEMS devices across multiple industries and applications. Every capability below runs in the same fab, on the same production equipment, under the same engineering team.
Integrated fabrication sequence:
- Substrate Preparation and Masking: Thermal oxide growth combined with low-stress LPCVD silicon nitride deposition
- Patterning and Lithography: Front-to-back alignment with spin or spray photoresist coating for varied topography
- Structure Definition and Etching: High-aspect-ratio DRIE alongside anisotropic KOH and TMAH wet etch chemistries
- Metallization: PVD metal deposition with bilayer resist lift-off for platinum, gold, and specialty metal patterns
Thin Film Deposition
Thin film deposition provides the electrical isolation, structural layers, sensing elements, and optical performance at the heart of most MEMS devices. Our film portfolio includes:
- Thermal oxide growth
- LPCVD silicon nitride, including low-stress and super-low-stress recipes
- LPCVD undoped polysilicon
- PECVD dielectric films
- PVD metal and dielectric films
These films are rarely used in isolation. We sequence them into integrated process flows, combining thermal oxide and nitride as etch masks, structural layers, and passivation within a single fab, so each film is deposited with the next process step already in mind.
Photolithography
Photolithography defines the microscale features that make MEMS devices work. We support precision patterning of thin films, alignment for multi-layer processing, and both spray and spin photoresist coating to handle varied substrates and topography.
Dry Etch and DRIE
Our plasma dry etch and deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) processes produce trenches, cavities, through-wafer vias, and high-aspect-ratio silicon structures.
- Standard DRIE Capability: Aspect ratios up to 15:1
- Etch Geometry: Etch depths from 5µm to through-wafer with sidewall profiles of 90 ±1 degrees
Wet Etch
Controlled anisotropic and isotropic wet etch processes include KOH and TMAH silicon etching, oxide and nitride masking integration, surface preparation and cleaning, and MEMS cavity formation.
Metal Lift-Off
When etching is not suitable for sensitive metals, our metal lift-off process uses a specialized bilayer resist technique to produce clean, high-quality platinum, gold, and specialty metal patterns for MEMS electrodes and interconnects.
Metrology and Process Control
Every deposition and etch step is backed by in-house metrology. We verify film thickness and uniformity against documented tolerances, characterize film stress with monitor wafers from run to run, and measure critical dimensions after lithography and etch. Results are recorded on process travelers, giving you a complete, traceable record of how your wafers were built.
Foundry-Informed MEMS Design Support
Developing a new device? Our MEMS design services team provides foundry-informed device development, process integration, and technology transfer support. Aligning your design with the fab that will build it removes the translation loss that happens when the design house and the foundry are separate companies.
An Engineering Team That Works Like an Extension of Yours
Large foundries optimize for high-volume standard products. We optimize for your device. From the first process review, our engineers work directly with your team, explain the reasoning behind every process decision, and share the data behind it.
You gain:
- Direct access to the engineers running your wafers
- Transparent, data-driven process development
- A clear record of exactly how your device is built
- One accountable partner from deposition through final etch
From Prototype to Production, Without Changing Fabs
Because prototypes and production wafers run on the same tools in the same fab, moving into manufacturing does not mean re-qualifying your process somewhere else. We plan scalable production pathways from the beginning of development, strengthening domestic supply-chain resilience along the way.
Need substrates sooner? Our ready-to-ship wafers let you start development immediately while your custom process runs.
Put Our MEMS Foundry Capabilities to Work
Tell us about your device and we will map it to a practical process flow, honestly and quickly. Request a quote to get started, or explore our wafer services for standalone film deposition on your own substrates.