Patent ID: 7790490

Claim:
A surface micromechanical process for manufacturing one or more micromachined capacitive ultra-acoustic transducers, each one of which comprises one or more electrostatic micro-cells, each micro-cell comprising a membrane of conductive elastic material suspended over a conductive substrate, comprising the steps of: A. providing a semi-finished product comprising a silicon wafer having a face covered by a first layer of elastic material, depositing above the first elastic material layer covering said face, a first metallic layer, B. making, above the first metallic layer and outside the silicon wafer, the conductive substrate of at least one micro-cell so that it is separated from the first metallic layer by a cavity; and C. in correspondence with said at least one micro-cell, removing the silicon wafer, starting from the face opposite to that covered by the first elastic material layer to uncover the surface of the first elastic material layer, whereby, the conductive elastic material membrane comprises at least one portion of the first elastic material layer and at least one corresponding portion of the first metallic layer, that is capable to operate as a front electrode of said at least one micro-cell.