A WAFER-LEVEL VACUUM PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY UTILIZING ELECTROPLATED NICKEL

摘要

A new technique for vacuum sealing MEMS devices at the wafer level has been presented. By using thick films of electroplated nickel, vacuum sealing has been demonstrated at low temperature with a maximum of flexibility in package geometry. Our data shows that bond widths as narrow as 10 microns are possible in this process without any adverse impact upon the gross hermeticity of the film. Using interferometery measurements, we have shown that vacuum sealing has occurred, although the pressure level inside the cavity, while low, is not precisely known. Experiments have been conducted in sealing the package, showing that thick sputtered films deposited on wide feedthroughs provides the most reasonable method for manufacturing the package. Experiments are currently underway to integrate vacuum sensors into this package to measure reliability under a variety of environmental conditions.