AbstractA hermetic package based on localized aluminum/silicon-to-glass bonding has been successfully demonstrated. Less
than 0.2 MPa contact pressure with 46 mA current input for
two parallel 3.5- m-wide polysilicon on-chip microheaters can
raise the temperature of the bonding region to 700 C bonding
temperature and achieve a strong and reliable bond in 7.5
min. The formation of aluminum oxide with silicon precipitate
composite layer is believed to be the source of the strong bond.
Accelerated testing in an autoclave shows some packages survive
more than 450 h under 3 atm, 100% RH and 128 C. Premature
failure has been attributed to some unbonded regions on the failed
samples. The bonding yield and reliability have been improved by
increasing bonding time and applied pressure.
[594]
Index TermsActiviation energy, aluminum/(silicon)-glass
bonding, Hermetic MEMS package, localized heating, reliability.
I. INTRODUCTION
393
(a)
(b)
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the hermetic package fabricated by localized aluminum/silicon-to-glass bonding (a) cross section of the package and (b) optical
photograph of the hermetic package seen through the glass capsule.
Fig. 2.
394
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3. SEM micrographs of localized aluminumglass bonding interface after
forcefully broken (a) glass is torn apart and transferred onto the microheater
in the silicon substrate (b) aluminum film is most stripped from the silicon
substrate then transferred into the glass substrate.
Fig. 5. A close view SEM on the silicon substrate before reflowing. The
step up of aluminum/silicon solder is caused by the underneath polysilicon
interconnect line.
This indicates that aluminum/siliconglass bond can also provide a strong bond between the aluminum/silicon and glass interface.
One of the advantages in using localized solder bonding
to packaging devices is that there is no need for a planarization process. In [9], we reported indium solder reflow to
overcome the surface topography which is created by electrical interconnects. The principle can also be applied in
aluminum/siliconglass bonding system. Fig. 5 shows a SEM
photograph of the microheater and bond region after aluminum
is deposited. A good surface coverage after the localized
heating to reflow the aluminum/silicon solder can be seen
in Fig. 6(a). In addition, 2 m spacing between two parallel
395
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. Close-up SEM of the polysilicon microheater after reflowing. Very
good step coverage is achieved (a) top view and (b) cross-sectional view.
Fig. 8. Statistical test results of autoclave test. These devices had all passed
the IPA test.
396
(a)
(b)
Fig. 9. SEM micrographs of the device substrate and glass cap after breaking
the bonding interface (a) glass is torn apart and transferred onto the device
substrate and (b) the polysilicon micorheater with aluminum solder is removed
from silicon and attached to the glass cap.
Fig. 12. Experimental results of bonding time for a given fracture
morphology versus bonding temperature in both cases of aluminum-to-glass
and aluminum/polysilicon-to-glass bondings. Two curve fitting lines are
intersected at 560 15 C which is very close to the eutectic point of
aluminumsilicon binary alloy.
siliconaluminum alloy, respectively. Fig. 12 shows the measurement results where is the bonding time to a given fracture morphology and is temperature in Kelvin. The interface
bonding reaction can be described in Arhennius relationship
Fig. 10. Enlarged view SEM micrograph on the device substrate. There is
some area which has weak formation of aluminum/silicon-to-glass bond and
is the leakage path for moisture.
where
constant;
Boltzmann constant;
1.0 eV and 1.5 eV for the aluminumglass and aluminum/siliconglass system, respectively.
The aluminumglass results are close to the report by
Prabriputaloong et al. [17] for the activation of aluminum
to vitreous glass and quartz which are 0.73 0.07 eV and
1.17 0.12 eV, respectively, and the report by Brendel et al.
[16] result for the reaction of aluminum to a-SiOx (0.98 eV).
Both of them proposed that aluminum atoms would replace the
silicon atom in the coordination of silicon dioxide to form aluminum oxide. In order to examine this reaction in the localized
aluminumglass bonding experiments, the sample in Fig. 4(a)
is placed into type-A [23] aluminum etchant for 10 min to
remove aluminum and Fig. 13(a) shows the result. A porous
layer on top of the glass substrate is observed. The sample is
then dipped into tetramethyl ammonium hydroxide (TMAH)
[24] solution for 20 min to remove silicon precipitate. Fig. 13(b)
shows the etching result and the remaining material is believed
(a)
(b)
Fig. 13. Close view of SEMs (a) after 10 min etching by dipping the sample in
Fig. 3(a) into aluminum type A etchant to remove aluminum. It shows a porous
layer is on top of glass substrate. (b) The porous layer is then dipping into TMAH
solution to remove silicon precipitate. A residual thin layer is believed to be
aluminum oxide which will not be attacked by TMAH solution.
397
Fig. 15. Optical photograph of the hermetic package fabricated at 850 C for
2 min showing microcrack formation on the glass capsule due to the thermal
stress effects.
398
V. CONCLUSION
Aluminum/silicon-to-glass bonding based on localized
heating technique has been successfully developed and applied
to hermetic packaging with an inter-digited pattern style of
dew point sensor. The surface step created by the electrical
interconnect line can be planarized by reflowing aluminum/silicon solder without affecting the performance of the packaged
sensor. Strong aluminumglass and aluminum/siliconglass
bonds achieved by the localized bonding process have been
characterized by the activation energy measurement. The
measured activation energy of 1.0 eV for the aluminumglass
system, is very close to that measured by the globalized
heating and bonding schemes. The bonding mechanism relies
on the formation of silicon precipitate and aluminum oxide
combination which can provide more than 10 MPa bonding
strength and good hermeticity. Moreover, adding silicon to
the aluminumglass system will speed up the bonding process
by reducing the required bonding time. An autoclave testing
shows some of hermetic packages can survive more than 450 h
at 3 atm, 100% RH and 128 C. Nonuniform bonding or microcracks have been identified as the main failure mechanisms
to hermetic seal with lifetime less than 200 h. Experimental
results also indicate bonding quality can be improved by
increasing bonding time and applied pressure to make sure
intimate contact between aluminum and glass.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Prof. Nguyen at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for valuable discussions.
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