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Low-Cost Wafer-Level Vacuum Packaging for MEMS

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Abstract

Vacuum packaging of high-performance surface-micromachined uncooled microbolometer detectors and focal-plane arrays (FPAs) for infrared imaging and nonimaging applications, inertial MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) accelerometers and gyroscopes, and rf MEMS resonators is a key issue in the technology development path to low-cost, high-volume MEMS production. In this article, two approaches to vacuum packaging for MEMS will be discussed. The first is component-level vacuum packaging, a die-level approach that involves packaging individual die in a ceramic package using either a silicon or germanium lid. The second approach is wafer-level vacuum packaging, in which the vacuum-packaging process is carried out at the wafer level prior to dicing the wafer into individual die. We focus the discussion of MEMS vacuum packaging on surface-micromachined uncooled amorphous silicon infrared microbolometer detectors and FPAs for which both component-level and wafer-level vacuum packaging have found widespread application and system insertion. We first discuss the requirement for vacuum packaging of uncooled a-Si microbolometers and FPAs. Second, we discuss the details of the component-level and wafer-level vacuum-packaging approaches. Finally, we discuss the system insertion of wafer-level vacuum packaging into the Raytheon 2000AS uncooled infrared imaging camera product line that employs a wafer-level-packaged 160 × 120 pixel a-Si infrared FPA.

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Authors
  1. Roland Gooch
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  2. Thomas Schimert
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Gooch, R., Schimert, T. Low-Cost Wafer-Level Vacuum Packaging for MEMS. MRS Bulletin 28, 55–59 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs2003.18

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