Material Aspects,

Wafer Bonding &

High Aspect-Ratio Processes
 1950s

Ge Narrow BG (0.66 eV)

High junction leakage currents
Operate up to 100°C
Intrinsic resistivity 47 Ohm-cm. Hence, HV rectifying devices not possible.
Germanium Oxide unsuitable for device applications
EGG more costly

Difficult to grow high quality oxide

One element oxidizes faster to other, leaving a metallic phase at the interface
GaAs Difficult to dope
Difficult to get high crystal perfection and large diameters

Wide BG (1.1 eV)

Less junction leakage currents

Si Operate up to 150°C
Intrinsic resistivity = 2,30,000 Ohm-cm. Hence, High voltage
rectifying devices are possible.
Si dioxide suitable for device applications (more planar)
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EGS Cheap
 Material Aspects of Micromachining

• Most commonly used structure material in

surface micromachining – Polysilicon.
• Other materials that can be used are metals,
silicon nitride, polymers and single crystal
silicon.
• For sacrificial layer, materials used are silicon
dioxide, phophosilicate glass, oxidized porous
silicon and photoresist.
 Polysilicon
• Deposited by LPCVD.
• Involves breaking up of silane at temperatures above 600 deg C to deposit
polysilicon on oxide substrates.
• Electrical, structural and thermal properties of polysilicon depend on
deposition condition like substrate temperature, pressure, flow rate, etc.
• Below 580 deg C, it is amorphous. At 600 deg C, grains are very fine, at 625
deg C they are little larger and at 645 deg C, they are columnar.
• For MEMS applications, deposition is done at 620 deg C, where, grain size is
small. This will ensure isotropic properties since the number of grain
boundaries are same in all directions. Typical thickness of the structural
layer ranges between 2-4 microns.
• Deposited polysilicon layers have compressive stress.
• In MEMS applications, where the structural layer has to be free standing,
residual stress can be very dangerous. Hence, they are annealed at high
temperatures (900-1500 deg C).
 Hot wall - Reduced pressure CVD reactor:

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 Other Advantages of Polysilicon

• Compatibility with IC fabrication technology.

• Good mechanical properties.
• Can be easily patterned with wet/dry etching.
• For wet etching, standard silicon etchants are used and for dry
etching RIE is preferred.
 Sacrificial Oxide
• It is 1.5 – 2 micron thick and easy to etch.
• Since the sacrificial oxide etchant has to go
through the patterned structural layer for the
release, this etching step is usually long.
• Many a times, wet chemical etch is preferred.
• Usually, a low temperature oxide which etches
easily in buffered HF is preferred.
• Etching times can be as long as 100 minutes.
 Wafer Bonding
•Substrate (wafer) bonding (silicon-silicon, silicon-glass, and glass-
glass) is among the most important fabrication techniques in
microsystem technology.
•It is a technique by which two wafers are joined together.
•It is frequently used to fabricate complex 3-D structures both as
a functional unit and as part of the final microsystem package
and encapsulation.
•The two most important bonding techniques are-
•silicon-glass electrostatic (or anodic) bonding
•silicon-silicon fusion (or silicon direct bonding)
•In addition to these techniques, several other alternative
methods that utilize an intermediate layer (eutectic, adhesive,
and glass frit) have also been investigated.
Wafer Bonding Example
 Basic Process In Wafer Bonding
• Wafer and substrate are separate.
• Silicon wafer and Silicon/Glass substrate are
brought together and heated to a high
temperature.
• Then, an electric field is applied across the
joint, which develops a strong bond between
the two materials.
Four Step Sequence of Wafer Bonding Process

• Surface preparation: Quality of bond depends on the surface

conditions. An surface contaminant of the order of 1µm can damage an
area as large as 1 cm in diameter.

• Fusion
• Pressurization
• Annealing
 Bond Characterization

• Two major characterization techniques for substrate

bonding evaluation are:
1)Visual inspection and 2) Blade test

• The silicon-glass anodic bond interface does not require

any particular imaging instrument and can be inspected
with an unaided eye or under a light microscope.

• However, infrared imaging, X-ray photography, and

ultrasonic methods are necessary for opaque substrates
(mainly silicon-silicon).
 Bond Strength

• It is very critical and sometimes very difficult to assess

the bond strength due to microscale dimensions.

• The blade test is often performed in order to estimate

the specific surface energy (and hence bond strength).
In this test, a blade is inserted between the bonded
substrates and a crack is induced.

• The length of the crack is then measured and the

specific surface energy is calculated.
 The Blade Test

λ = 3Et3 y2 / 8L4
λ is the surface energy (erg/cm2), E is the Young’s modulus of substrate
(dyne/cm2), t is the thickness of the wafer, y is the half-thickness of the
blade, and L is the crack length.
Main Drawback: 4th power of L.
Error in the measurement would be reflected in the order of the 4th power.
 Anodic Bonding
•It is applied to silicon wafers and glass with a high content of alkali metals.
•It has a sodium oxide concentration of 3.5 %.
•It is also known as electrostatic bonding.
External Pressure

Glass Applied -ve Voltage

Silicon

Heated Metal

•High – ve voltage between two mechanical supports and the composition is

heated up-to 500 deg C.
•This voltage creates strong electric field , pulling the two surfaces together. + ve
sodium ions from the glass get attached to – ve electrode and they get neutralized
and create strong bonding between them.
• During bonding oxygen from the glass is transported to the
glass-silicon interface.

• SiO2 is formed in this process and permanent bonds are

created.

• Other techniques include adhesive layers like wax, epoxy etc.

• Wafer bonding techniques can be combined with basic

micromachined structures to design complex microdevices
like valves and pumps.
 Fusion Bonding
• Also known as Silicon-Direct-Bonding.
• Used in a wide range of applications in microelectronics and
microsystems technology.
• Two silicon wafers are bonded through formation of oxides on
their surfaces.
• Suitable method for manufacturing devices using p-n junctions.
• Low cost and flexible.
• Thermal mismatch between the bond materials is low.
• Bond features can be featured easily.
• High strength because of homogeneity.
• Can be bonded at high or low temperatures depending on the
materials used.
 Bonding relies on very smooth and flat surfaces to adhere.

Maximum bond strength is achieved at temperatures between

700-1100 deg C. (Thermally sensitive devices can be bonded at
200-400 deg C by using separate surface activation methods. )

External Pressure
Fusion wafer bonding with single point contact

Spacer

silicon
Silicon

Support
External Pressure

Spacer
Silicon
Fusion wafer bonding with uniform surface contact Silicon

Support
 Process steps in fusion bonding
•Two wafers are cleaned and hydrophilised in an acid mixture.
•They are rinsed and spin-dried.
•The wafers are then wetted with silicate solutions.
•Again, wafers are rinsed and dried.
•Then, they are joined by applying external pressure, initially at
the centre and then uniformly throughout the surface.
•Bonding is controlled by viscosity and pressure of ambient gas
and surface energy.
•To dehydrate the surface from moisture, wafers are heated.
•Spacers are provided to facilitate mechanical / electrical
contacts.
•At high temperatures, bond strength is almost equal to silicon
itself.
 High-Aspect-Ratio Micromachining :
The bulk and surface micromachining technologies fulfill
the requirements of a large group of applications.
Certain applications, however, require the fabrication of
high-aspect-ratio structures, which is not possible with
the afore mentioned technologies.
There are mainly three technologies :
LIGA, HEXSIL, and HARPSS, capable of producing
structures with vertical dimensions much larger than the
lateral dimensions by means of X-ray lithography (LIGA)
and DRIE (Deep Reactive Ion Etching) (HEXSIL and
HARPSS).
Some LIGA structures

BWO Alignment structures Gear Systems

Waveguide Tunable Filter Membrane

LIGA
• LIGA is a German acronym
for Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung
(Lithography, Electroplating and Molding) that
describes a fabrication technology used to
create high-aspect-ratio microstructures.
• There are two main LIGA-fabrication
technologies:
1. X-Rays LIGA
2. UV LIGA
X-Ray LIGA
• In the process, an X-ray sensitive polymer
photoresist, typically PMMA (Polymethyl
methacrylate)), bonded to an electrically
conductive substrate, is exposed to parallel
beams of high-energy X-rays from a
synchrotron radiation source through a mask
partly covered with a strong X-ray absorbing
material.
• Chemical removal of exposed (or
unexposed) photoresist results in a three-
dimensional structure, which can be filled by
the electrodeposition of metal.
• The resist is chemically stripped away to
produce a metallic mold insert.
LIGA PROCESS
Gear System
Fabrication
by LIGA
Notable characteristics of X-ray LIGA-fabricated
structures:

• High aspect ratios on the order of 100:1

• LIGA is a relatively inexpensive fabrication
technology, and suitable for applications
requiring higher aspect ratio devices than
what is achievable in Surface
Micromachining.
X-Ray LIGA
Applications of MEMS Technology
• Accelerometer in consumer electronics
• MEMS gyroscope
• Silicon Pressure Sensor (eg. Car tyre pressure
sensor and disposable pressure sensor)
• Optical switching technology, which is used for
switching technology and alignment for data
communications
• Bio-MEMS applications in medical and health
related technologies
Etc…….
Silicon Pressure Sensor
Accelerometer
Cantilever based optical reader