Patent ID: 6495387
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: H01H,H01L

Abstract:
A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit device, the device comprising a plurality of micromechanical switches and a plurality of thin film circuit components provided on a common substrate, the method comprising:depositing and patterning a lower electrode pattern which defines bottom contacts for the thin film circuit components and for the micromechanical switches; depositing and patterning component layers for forming the thin film circuit components over the lower electrode pattern, the component layers defining sacrificial regions over regions of the substrate allocated to the micromechanical switches and defining the thin film circuit components over regions of the substrate allocated to the thin film circuit components; depositing and patterning a conductive layer to provide an upper electrode pattern, the upper electrode pattern defining top contacts for the thin film circuit components and defining contact beams for the micromechanical switches, the contact beams each extending over a respective sacrificial region; removing the sacrificial regions of the component layers to define a space between the contact beam and the lower electrode pattern of each micromechanical switch.