Processes and materials for creating and maintaining reliable vacuum and other controlled atmospheres in hermetically sealed MEMS packages

摘要

Abstract: Many MEMs systems require controlled atmospheres or vacuum for successful operation. These atmospheres or vacuum must first be obtained and then maintained against degradation over the lifetime of the device. Vacuum and controlled atmospheres decay in quality over time due to various mechanisms including poor processing and outgassing. At the beginning of the MEMs era many researchers felt that these systems were immune to these degradation mechanisms due to their small sizes. As the technology has developed and moved in the application phase many groups have run into lifetime issues when they have tried to package their systems. Investigation demonstrated that the same problems that large-scale static vacuum systems suffer apply in the MEMs arena as well. The key to controlling this process of degradation is good processes and process control during the manufacturing phase and the introduction of gettering materials into the package to deal with long term outgassing of harmful species. The key steps of a successful generic process inclusive of getter use and activation will be discussed.!9