Materials | Substrate:
Intermediate layer:
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Temperature | ≤ 450 °C |
Advantages |
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Drawbacks |
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Glass frit bonding, also referred to as glass soldering or seal glass bonding, describes a wafer bonding technique with an intermediate glass layer. It is a widely used encapsulation technology for surface micro-machined structures, e.g., accelerometers or gyroscopes. [1] This technique utilizes low melting-point glass ("glass solder") and therefore provides various advantages including that viscosity of glass decreases with an increase of temperature. The viscous flow of glass has effects to compensate and planarize surface irregularities, convenient for bonding wafers with a high roughness due to plasma etching or deposition. A low viscosity promotes hermetically sealed encapsulation of structures based on a better adaption of the structured shapes. [2] Further, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the glass material is adapted to silicon. This results in low stress in the bonded wafer pair. The glass has to flow and wet the soldered surfaces well below the temperature where deformation or degradation of either of the joined materials or nearby structures (e.g., metallization layers on chips or ceramic substrates) occurs. The usual temperature of achieving flowing and wetting is between 450 and 550 °C (840 and 1,020 °F).
Glass frit bonding can be used for many surface materials, e.g., silicon with hydrophobic and hydrophilic surface, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, aluminium, titanium or glass, as long as the CTE are in the same range. This bonding procedure also allows the realization of metallic feedthroughs to contact active structures in the hermetically sealed cavity. Glass frit as a dielectric material does not need additional passivation for preventing leakage currents at process temperatures up to 125 °C (257 °F). [3]
The process begins with the deposition of glass paste onto the surfaces to be treated. It is then heated to burn out additives and fire it in order to form the glass layer. The bonding process reconfigures the sintered glass into the desired state. Finally, the reconfigured glass is cooled down. [4]
Glass frit bonding is used to encapsulate surface micro-machined sensors, i.e. gyroscopes and accelerometers. Other applications are the sealing of absolute pressure sensor cavities, the mounting of optical windows and the capping of thermally active devices. [3]
The glass frit bond procedure is used for the encapsulation and mounting of components. The coating of glass frit layers is applied by spin coating for thickness of 5 to 30 μm or commonly by screen printing for thickness of 10 to 30 μm. [4]
Screen printing, as a commonly used deposition method, provides a technique of structuring for the glass frit material. This method has the advantage of material deposition on structured cap wafers without any additional processes, i.e. photolithography. [3]
Screen printing enables the possibility of selective bonding. So only in areas where bonding is required the glass frit is deposited. [3]
The risk of glass frit flowing into the structures can be prevented by optimization of the screen printing process. Under high positioning precision the sizes of the structures in the range of 190 μm with a minimum spacing of < 100 μm are achievable. The exact positioning of the screen print structures to the cap wafer are required to ensure an accurate bond. The bonded structures are, dependent on the wettability of the printed surface, 10 to 20% wider than the designed screen. [5]
To ensure a uniform glass thickness, all structures should have the same width. The printed glass frit high is about 30 μm and provides a gap of 5 to 10 μm between the bonded wafers after bonding (compare to cross sectional SEM images). [3] A bond surface activation is not necessary to promote a higher bonding strength. [6]
The printed glass frit structures are heated to form compact glass. The heating process is necessary to drive out the solvents and binder. This results in a subsequent particle fusion of the glass powder. Using mechanical pressure the wafers are bonded at elevated temperatures. [2]
Thermal conditioning transforms the glass paste into a glass layer and is important to prevent voids inside the glass frit layer. [3] The conditioning process consists of:
The initial step comprises drying for 5 to 7 minutes at 100 to 120 °C in order to diffuse solvents out of the interface. This starts the polymerization of the organic binder. The binder molecules are linked to long-chain polymers which solidifies the paste. [5]
The organic binder of the glass paste has to be burned with heating up to a specific temperature (325 to 350 °C) where the glass is not fully melted for 10 to 20 minutes. This so-called glazing ensures the outgassing of the organic additives.
Further, a pre-melting or sealing step heats the material to the process temperature between 410 and 459 °C for 5 to 10 min. The material fully melts and forms a compact glass without any inclusions. The inorganic fillers are melted down and the properties of the bond glass are fixed. [3] The melting of the glass starts at the silicon-glass interface directed to the glass surface. During the melting process the porosity of the glass eliminates and based on the compression of the intermediate layer the thickness of the glass decreases significantly. [5]
The glass frit bonding, starting with alignment of the wafers, is a thermo-compressive process that takes place in the bonding chamber at specific pressure. Under bonding pressure wafers are heated up to the process temperature around 430 °C for a few minutes. [3] On the one hand a short bonding time causes the glass frit to spread insufficiently, on the other hand a longer bonding time causes the glass frit to be overflown subsequently leaving voids. [6]
The alignment has to be very precise and stable to prevent shifting. This can be realized using clamps or special pressure plates. [3] Shifting can occur through temporarily staggered pressure, not precise vertical pressure based on misalignment of the bonding tools or the difference of thermal expansion between the bonding tools. [5]
During bonding a supporting tool pressure is applied to improve the thermal input into the bonding glass and equal wafer geometry inadmissibility (i.e. bow and warp) supporting wettability. [7] Based on the sufficiently high viscosity of the glass, bonding can take place nearly without pressure. [5]
The bonding temperature needs to be high enough to reduce the viscosity of the glass material and ensures a good wetting of the bond surface, but also low enough to prevent overspreading of the glass frit material. The heating up over 410 °C enables the wetting of the bond surface. A good wetting is indicated by a low edge angle. The atomic wafer surface layers are fused into the glass at an atomic level. [7] This forms a thin glass mixture at the interface which forms the strong bond between the glass and the wafer. [3]
During cooling down under pressure a mechanically strong and hermetically sealed wafer bond is formed. [3] The cooling process leads especially at higher temperatures to thermal stress in the glass frit layer that has to be considered in the lifetime analysis of the bond frame. [8] The wafer pair is removed from the bond chamber at lower temperatures to prevent thermal cracking of the wafers or the bond interface by thermal shocks. [7]
The bonding strength is mainly dependent on the density, the spreading area of the glass frit layer and the surface layer of the bonding interface. It is high enough, around 20 MPa, for most applications and comparable to those achieved with anodic bonding. The hermeticity ensures the correct function and a sufficient reliability of the bond and therefore the product. Further, the bonding yield of glass frit bonded wafers is very high, normally > 90 %. [6]
Two types of glass solders are used: vitreous, and devitrifying. Vitreous solders retain their amorphous structure during remelting, can be reworked repeatedly, and are relatively transparent. Devitrifying solders undergo partial crystallization during solidifying, forming a glass-ceramic, a composite of glassy and crystalline phases. Devitrifying solders usually create a stronger mechanical bond, but are more temperature-sensitive and the seal is more likely to be leaky; due to their polycrystalline structure they tend to be translucent or opaque. [9] Devitrifying solders are frequently "thermosetting", as their melting temperature after recrystallization becomes significantly higher; this allows soldering the parts together at lower temperature than the subsequent bake-out without remelting the joint afterwards. Devitrifying solders frequently contain up to 25% zinc oxide. In production of cathode ray tubes, devitrifying solders based on PbO-B2O3-ZnO are used.
Very low temperature melting glasses, fluid at 200–400 °C (390–750 °F), were developed for sealing applications for electronics. They can consist of binary or ternary mixtures of thallium, arsenic and sulfur. [10] Zinc-silicoborate glasses can also be used for passivation of electronics; their coefficient of thermal expansion must match silicon (or the other semiconductors used) and they must not contain alkaline metals as those would migrate to the semiconductor and cause failures. [11]
The bonding between the glass or ceramics and the glass solder can be either covalent, or, more often, van der Waals. [12] The seal can be leak-tight; glass soldering is frequently used in vacuum technology. Glass solders can be also used as sealants; a vitreous enamel coating on iron lowered its permeability to hydrogen 10 times. [13] Glass solders are frequently used for glass-to-metal seals and glass-ceramic-to-metal seals.
Glass solders are available as frit powder with grain size below 60 micrometers. They can be mixed with water or alcohol to form a paste for easy application, or with dissolved nitrocellulose or other suitable binder for adhering to the surfaces until being melted. [14] The eventual binder has to be burned off before melting proceeds, requiring careful firing regime. The solder glass can be also applied from molten state to the area of the future joint during manufacture of the part. Due to their low viscosity in molten state, lead glasses with high PbO content (often 70–85%) are frequently used. The most common compositions are based on lead borates (leaded borate glass or borosilicate glass). Smaller amount of zinc oxide or aluminium oxide can be added for increasing chemical stability. Phosphate glasses can be also employed. Zinc oxide, bismuth trioxide, and copper(II) oxide can be added for influencing the thermal expansion; unlike the alkali oxides, these lower the softening point without increasing of thermal expansion.
To achieve process temperatures beneath 450 °C leaded glass or lead silicate glass is used. The glass frit is a paste consisting glass powder, organic binder, inorganic fillers and solvents. This low melting glass paste is milled into powder (grain size < 15 μm) and mixed with organic binder forming a printable viscous paste. [3] Inorganic fillers, i.e. cordierite particles (e.g. Mg2Al3 [AlSi5O18]) or barium silicate, are added to the melted glass paste to influence properties, i.e. lowering the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficients between silicon and glass frit. [15] The solvents are used to adjust the viscosity of the organic binder. Several glass frit pastes are commercially available, e.g. FERRO FX-11-0366, and every single one need individual handling after deposition. [5] The choice of the paste depends on various factors, i.e. deposition method, substrate material and process temperatures. [2]
The glass used for MEMS applications consists of particles and lead oxide. Latter lowers the glass transition temperature below 400 °C. [8] The reduction of lead oxide by the silicon leads to the formation of lead precipitations at the silicon-glass interface. Those precipitations decrease the strength of the bond and are reliability risks that have to be considered for the lifetime predictions of the devices. [15]
Glass solders are frequently used in electronic packaging. CERDIP packagings are an example. Outgassing of water from the glass solder during encapsulation was a cause of high failure rates of early CERDIP integrated circuits. Removal of glass-soldered ceramic covers, e.g., for gaining access to the chip for failure analysis or reverse engineering, is best done by shearing; if this is too risky, the cover is polished away instead. [16]
As the seals can be performed at much lower temperature than with direct joining of glass parts and without use of flame (using a temperature-controlled kiln or oven), glass solders are useful in applications like subminiature vacuum tubes or for joining mica windows to vacuum tubes and instruments (e.g., Geiger tube). Thermal expansion coefficient has to be matched to the materials being joined and often is chosen in between the coefficients of expansion of the materials. In case of having to compromise, subjecting the joint to compression stresses is more desirable than to tensile stresses. The expansion matching is not critical in applications where thin layers are used on small areas, e.g., fireable inks, or where the joint will be subjected to a permanent compression (e.g., by an external steel shell) offsetting the thermally introduced tensile stresses. [10]
Glass solder can be used as an intermediate layer when joining materials (glasses, ceramics) with significantly different coefficient of thermal expansion; such materials cannot be directly joined by diffusion welding. [17] Evacuated glazing windows are made of glass panels soldered together. [18]
A glass solder is used, e.g., for joining together parts of cathode ray tubes and plasma display panels. Newer compositions lowered the usage temperature from 450 to 390 °C (840 to 730 °F) by reducing the lead(II) oxide content down from 70%, increasing the zinc oxide content, adding titanium dioxide and bismuth(III) oxide and some other components. The high thermal expansion of such glass can be reduced by a suitable ceramic filler. Lead-free solder glasses with soldering temperature of 450 °C (842 °F) were also developed.
Phosphate glasses with low melting temperature were developed. One of such compositions is phosphorus pentoxide, lead(II) oxide, and zinc oxide, with addition of lithium and some other oxides. [19]
Electrically conductive glass solders can be also prepared.[ citation needed ]
The following advantages result from using the glass frit bonding procedure: [5]
MEMS is the technology of microscopic devices incorporating both electronic and moving parts. MEMS are made up of components between 1 and 100 micrometres in size, and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20 micrometres to a millimetre, although components arranged in arrays can be more than 1000 mm2. They usually consist of a central unit that processes data and several components that interact with the surroundings.
Solder is a fusible metal alloy used to create a permanent bond between metal workpieces. Solder is melted in order to wet the parts of the joint, where it adheres to and connects the pieces after cooling. Metals or alloys suitable for use as solder should have a lower melting point than the pieces to be joined. The solder should also be resistant to oxidative and corrosive effects that would degrade the joint over time. Solder used in making electrical connections also needs to have favorable electrical characteristics.
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula SiO2, commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is abundant as it comprises several minerals and synthetic products. All forms are white or colorless, although impure samples can be colored.
Fused quartz,fused silica or quartz glass is a glass consisting of almost pure silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. This differs from all other commercial glasses in which other ingredients are added which change the glasses' optical and physical properties, such as lowering the melt temperature. Fused quartz, therefore, has high working and melting temperatures, making it less desirable for most common applications.
In metallurgy, a flux is a chemical cleaning agent, flowing agent, or purifying agent. Fluxes may have more than one function at a time. They are used in both extractive metallurgy and metal joining.
Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with silica and boron trioxide as the main glass-forming constituents. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion, making them more resistant to thermal shock than any other common glass. Such glass is subjected to less thermal stress and can withstand temperature differentials without fracturing of about 165 °C (300 °F). It is commonly used for the construction of reagent bottles and flasks, as well as lighting, electronics, and cookware.
The role of the substrate in power electronics is to provide the interconnections to form an electric circuit, and to cool the components. Compared to materials and techniques used in lower power microelectronics, these substrates must carry higher currents and provide a higher voltage isolation. They also must operate over a wide temperature range.
Glass-to-metal seals are a type of mechanical seal which joins glass and metal surfaces. They are very important elements in the construction of vacuum tubes, electric discharge tubes, incandescent light bulbs, glass-encapsulated semiconductor diodes, reed switches, glass windows in metal cases, and metal or ceramic packages of electronic components.
Adhesive bonding describes a wafer bonding technique with applying an intermediate layer to connect substrates of different types of materials. Those connections produced can be soluble or insoluble. The commercially available adhesive can be organic or inorganic and is deposited on one or both substrate surfaces. Adhesives, especially the well-established SU-8, and benzocyclobutene (BCB), are specialized for MEMS or electronic component production.
Thick-film technology is used to produce electronic devices/modules such as surface mount devices modules, hybrid integrated circuits, heating elements, integrated passive devices and sensors. Main manufacturing technique is screen printing (stenciling), which in addition to use in manufacturing electronic devices can also be used for various graphic reproduction targets. It became one of the key manufacturing/miniaturisation techniques of electronic devices/modules during 1950s. Typical film thickness – manufactured with thick film manufacturing processes for electronic devices – is 0.0001 to 0.1 mm.
Precision glass moulding is a replicative process that allows the production of high precision optical components from glass without grinding and polishing. The process is also known as ultra-precision glass pressing. It is used to manufacture precision glass lenses for consumer products such as digital cameras, and high-end products like medical systems. The main advantage over mechanical lens production is that complex lens geometries such as aspheres can be produced cost-efficiently.
Thermocompression bonding describes a wafer bonding technique and is also referred to as diffusion bonding, pressure joining, thermocompression welding or solid-state welding. Two metals, e.g. gold-gold (Au), are brought into atomic contact applying force and heat simultaneously. The diffusion requires atomic contact between the surfaces due to the atomic motion. The atoms migrate from one crystal lattice to the other one based on crystal lattice vibration. This atomic interaction sticks the interface together. The diffusion process is described by the following three processes:
Electronic components have a wide range of failure modes. These can be classified in various ways, such as by time or cause. Failures can be caused by excess temperature, excess current or voltage, ionizing radiation, mechanical shock, stress or impact, and many other causes. In semiconductor devices, problems in the device package may cause failures due to contamination, mechanical stress of the device, or open or short circuits.
Direct bonding, or fusion bonding, describes a wafer bonding process without any additional intermediate layers. The bonding process is based on chemical bonds between two surfaces of any material possible meeting numerous requirements. These requirements are specified for the wafer surface as sufficiently clean, flat and smooth. Otherwise unbonded areas so called voids, i.e. interface bubbles, can occur.
Anodic bonding is a wafer bonding process to seal glass to either silicon or metal without introducing an intermediate layer; it is commonly used to seal glass to silicon wafers in electronics and microfluidics. This bonding technique, also known as field assisted bonding or electrostatic sealing, is mostly used for connecting silicon/glass and metal/glass through electric fields. The requirements for anodic bonding are clean and even wafer surfaces and atomic contact between the bonding substrates through a sufficiently powerful electrostatic field. Also necessary is the use of borosilicate glass containing a high concentration of alkali ions. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the processed glass needs to be similar to those of the bonding partner.
Eutectic bonding, also referred to as eutectic soldering, describes a wafer bonding technique with an intermediate metal layer that can produce a eutectic system. Those eutectic metals are alloys that transform directly from solid to liquid state, or vice versa from liquid to solid state, at a specific composition and temperature without passing a two-phase equilibrium, i.e. liquid and solid state. The fact that the eutectic temperature can be much lower than the melting temperature of the two or more pure elements can be important in eutectic bonding.
Reactive bonding describes a wafer bonding procedure using highly reactive nanoscale multilayer systems as an intermediate layer between the bonding substrates. The multilayer system consists of two alternating different thin metallic films. The self-propagating exothermic reaction within the multilayer system contributes the local heat to bond the solder films. Based on the limited temperature the substrate material is exposed, temperature-sensitive components and materials with different CTEs, i.e. metals, polymers and ceramics, can be used without thermal damage.
Microelectromechanical system oscillators are devices that generate highly stable reference frequencies used to sequence electronic systems, manage data transfer, define radio frequencies, and measure elapsed time. The core technologies used in MEMS oscillators have been in development since the mid-1960s, but have only been sufficiently advanced for commercial applications since 2006. MEMS oscillators incorporate MEMS resonators, which are microelectromechanical structures that define stable frequencies. MEMS clock generators are MEMS timing devices with multiple outputs for systems that need more than a single reference frequency. MEMS oscillators are a valid alternative to older, more established quartz crystal oscillators, offering better resilience against vibration and mechanical shock, and reliability with respect to temperature variation.
Aluminium alloys are often used due to their high strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, low cost, high thermal and electrical conductivity. There are a variety of techniques to join aluminium including mechanical fasteners, welding, adhesive bonding, brazing, soldering and friction stir welding (FSW), etc. Various techniques are used based on the cost and strength required for the joint. In addition, process combinations can be performed to provide means for difficult-to-join assemblies and to reduce certain process limitations.
Glossary of microelectronics manufacturing terms
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