Woon-bae Kim

Application of Au-Sn eutectic bonding in hermetic radio-frequency microelectromechanical system wafer level packaging

Development of packaging is one of the critical issues toward realizing commercialization of radio-frequency-microelectromechanical system (RF-MEMS) devices. The RF-MEMS package should be designed to have small size, hermetic protection, good RF performance, and high reliability. In addition, packaging should be conducted at sufficiently low temperature. In this paper, a low-temperature hermetic wafer level packaging scheme for the RF-MEMS devices is presented. For hermetic sealing, Au-Sn eutectic bonding technology at temperatures below 300°C is used. Au-Sn multilayer metallization with a square loop of 70 µm in width is performed. The electrical feed-through is achieved by the vertical through-hole via filling with electroplated Cu. The size of the MEMS package is 1 mm × 1 mm × 700 µm. The shear strength and hermeticity of the package satisfies the requirements of MIL-STD-883F. Any organic gases or contamination are not observed inside the package. The total insertion loss for the packaging is 0.075 dB at 2 GHz. Furthermore, the robustness of the package is demonstrated by observing no performance degradation and physical damage of the package after several reliability tests.

Application of Au-Sn eutectic bonding in hermetic RF MEMS wafer level packaging

Recently the strong demands in wireless communication requires expanding development for the application of RF MEMS (Radio Frequency micro electro mechanical systems) sensing devices such as micro-switches, tunable capacitors because it offers lower power consumption, lower losses, higher linearity and higher Q factors compared with conventional communications components. To accelerate commercialization of RF MEMS products, development for packaging technologies is one of the most critical issues should be solved beforehand. Packaging for RF MEMS is more challenging compared with conventional IC (integrated Circuit) Packaging technologies because it has both electrical and mechanical component, a low temperature, and hermetic wafer level packaging technology is needed for RF MEMS device. Au-Sn metallization system has been successfully utilize for flip chip bonding in many applications such as optoelectronic packaging and microwave device because of their high strength, good wetting behaviors, and resistance for thermal fatigue compared with conventional Pb/Sn solder system. Au-Sn eutectic bonding is considered to be a promising low temperature, wafer level bonding technology. In this paper, Au-Sn eutectic bonding for RF MEMS application is presented, a closed square loop was designed for the bonding structure, test vehicle was prepared for DOE (Design of experiment) process for the optimization of bonding parameters, and bonding temperature and applied load are found to be the most critical parameters for the bonding result, bonding can be done at a relative low temperature below 300/spl deg/C. For bonded samples, shear strength, warpage, insertion loss and hermetic tests etc. are performed for the evaluation of bonding quality, AES (Auger Electron Spectrum) and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) was also made to investigate the microstructure of bonded interface, and reliability test such as thermal shock and high temperature, high humidity storage test was performed for the evaluation of bonding quality.

Varifocal liquid-filled microlens operated by an electroactive polymer actuator.

We designed, fabricated, and characterized varifocal microlenses, whose focal length varies along with the deformation of a transparent elastomer membrane under hydraulic pressure tailored by electroactive polymer actuators. The microfluidic channel of the microlens was designed to be embedded between silicon and glass so that transient fluctuation of the optical fluid and elastomer membrane is effectively suppressed, and thus the microlens is optically stabilized in a reduced time. Multilayered poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-clorotrifluoroethylene) actuators were also developed and integrated onto the microfluidic chambers. We demonstrated that the developed microlenses are suitable for use in microimaging systems to make their foci tunable.

Liquid-filled varifocal lens on a chip

In this study we developed a liquid-filled varifocal lens operated by electroactive polymer actuators. A silicon wafer was structured with micromachining processes to have four microfluidic chambers and a circular hole working as an aperture. The structured silicon wafer (opaque frame) was bonded to a glass wafer (transparent frame), and thus microfluidic channels were formed between them. Top surface of the main frame was covered with a transparent elastomer membrane, and the internal volume confined by the membrane and the two frames was filled with optical fluid. In order to operate this varifocal lens system, multilayered P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) [poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-clorofluoroethylene)] polymer actuators were also developed, which show relaxor ferroelectric behavior, and thus produce large electrostrictive strain. When an electric field is applied, the multilayered P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) polymer actuators push the optical fluid so that the elastomer membrane together with the internal fluid changes their shape, which alters the light path of the varifocal lens. The original shape of the elastomer membrane is restored by the elastic recovery of the P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) actuators when an applied electric field is removed. We observed that with the applied voltage of 40 V the varifocal lens changes the optical power of more than 30 diopters within 20 ms. Optical analysis showed that the deformation shape of the optical membrane can be successfully used to design phone camera modules with auto-focus function.

A low temperature, hermetic wafer level packaging method for RF MEMS switch

In this paper, a low temperature hermetic wafer level packaging (WLP) scheme for RF-MEMS devices such as micro-switches is presented. The real component with size 1mm/spl times/1mm is composed of two parts: cap substrate and device substrate, cap substrate has a via-in-cavity structure with cavity depth of 20/spl mu/m. High aspect ratio via hole is fabricated by inductive coupled plasma-reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) and electroplated with Cu for electrical feed-through. Eutectic bonding is still the most commonly used packaging technology at present. For the purpose of hermetic sealing, Au-Sn multilayer metallization with a close square loop of 100/spl mu/m width have been sputtered onto cap wafer surface as soldering system. Deposition of cap wafer metallization should be finished in one high vacuum chamber process in order to prevent oxidation of Sn layer during producing process. And Ti-Ni-Au combination structure is deposited and patterned on device wafer in accordance with the sealing and interconnection areas in cap wafer. Bonding is performed in wafer level using eutectic bonder (TPS-2000A, BNP science) at a relative low temperature of 280/spl deg/C for heating in static N/sub 2/ ambience for a period of time. As-bonded wafers are then diced into pieces and subjected to a series of performance test for evaluation. Shear strength of two bonded interfaces are measured for sample cells by shear tester ROYCE 552 100K to evaluate mechanical property. RF characteristics insertion loss at 2GHz has measured by HP 8510C network analyzer probe station, a total packaging insertion loss less than 0.05DB could be achieved. For hermeticity test, specific test vehicles which have a large cavity of 0.5/spl times/0.5/spl times/0.05cm/sup 3/ are designed for helium leak test based on M1T-STD-883F since real device cavity has a tiny volume of only 600/spl times/600/spl times/30/spl mu/m/sup 3/, test vehicles indicate a maximum equivalent leak rate in air of 1.6/spl times/10/sup -8/ mbar.l/sec. Also residual gas analysis (RGA) test is performed for bonded device sample. Reliability tests like thermal shock and high temperature, high humidity storage test are also performed according to MIL-STD-883F. For samples before and after reliability tests, measurements also have been made for comparison to evaluate the quality and reliability of packaging structure.

Zoom lens design using liquid lens for laparoscope

Traditional laparoscopic optical systems consisting of about 30 lenses have low optical magnification. To magnify tissue during surgical operations, one must change from one laparoscope to another or use a magnifying adapter between the laparoscope and the sensor. Our work focuses on how to change the sag of a liquid lens while zooming from 1 × zoom, to 2 × , and 4 × in an optical design for a laparoscope. The design includes several lenses and two liquid lenses with variable focal lengths. A pair of laparoscopes for 3-D stereoscopy is placed within a tube 11 mm in diameter. The predicted depth resolution of tissue is 0.5 mm without interpolation at 4 × zoom.

6B-6 An Ultra Small SAW RF Filter using Wafer Level Packaging Technology

Since a multitude of surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters are the key components for wireless communications, they play an important role in todays mobile phone evolution. Increasing the levels of functional integration and size reduction are therefore the major driving forces in recent SAW radio frequency (RF) filter development. This paper presents a pioneering work for design and fabrication of ultra small SAW filter package. A novel wafer level packaging technology based on through-wafer interconnection and wafer-to-wafer bonding is designed to achieve highly miniaturized SAW RF filters. Based on this technology, SAW RF filters for mobile phone systems are developed in the worlds smallest size of 1.0 times 0.8 times 0.25 mm3. It is shown that our newly developed SAW RF filter offers equal frequency characteristics compared with the conventional chip-sized package. And the reliability test result of hermetically sealed SAW filter package will be presented to verify its application to mobile phones. As a result of these developments, wafer-level packaged SAW RF filters will offer considerable advantages over conventional chip-sized packages in many aspects of performance and production, including size, cost, and further integration

A Wafer-Level Micro Mechanical Global Shutter for a Micro Camera

A novel wafer-level manufactured micro mechanical global shutter utilizing thin-film roll actuators is presented for a micro mobile camera. The aperture of the shutter is 2.2 mm in diameter and covered with 36 triangular roll actuators whose radius of curvature is designed to 235 ¿m. The stress induced rolling of thin composite layers and their pull-in behaviors are analyzed and experimented. A 0.8 mm-thick wafer-level shutter array is successfully implemented using batch processes. The fabricated shutter can follows 500 Hz-square wave signal of 30 V

Characterization and Reliability Verification of Wafer-Level Hermetic Package with Nano-Liter Cavity for RF-MEMS Applications

Wafer-level packaging (WLP) is a very promising candidate for RF-MEMS packaging, especially in the mobile applications, due to the lower cost and higher volume throughput relative to the component level packaging. However, the long-term reliability of WLP is still one of the critical concerns for the commercialization of RF-MEMS devices. In this paper, a wafer-level hermetic packaging scheme based on through-wafer interconnects and wafer-to-wafer bonding will be reviewed in terms of their construction, fabrication process, and electrical/mechanical performance. The film bulk acoustic resonators (FBARs) sealed with the wafer-level packaging scheme were also undergone through harsh environment tests, such as the pressure cooker test for 300 hours, the high humidity storage test at 85degC/85%RH for 1000 hours, the high temp storage test at 125degC for 1000 hours and the temperature cycling test (-55~125degC) for 1000 cycles, to investigate the long-term reliability of the packages. The performance evaluation and reliability results of the package will also be presented.

Variable aperture controlled by microelectrofluidic iris

This Letter presents an adaptive liquid iris based on microelectrofluidic technology with experimental results. In the microelectrofluidic iris (MEFI), the electrostatic force generated by electrowetting in a surface channel unbalances the Laplace pressure acting on two fluidic interfaces between air and a light-absorbing liquid in two connected surface channels in a chamber. Then, the changed net pressure makes the iris aperture of the liquid diaphragm adjustable. The present MEFI was designed to have a tunable range from 4.2 to 0.85 mm in diameter and a tuning ratio of 80%. The MEFI was fabricated with a transparent electrode patterned on three glass plates and two channel spacers. Concerning the optical and interfacial properties of the MEFI for its operation, an aqueous near-infrared dye used in optical coherence tomography (OCT) was forced into a ring shape as the driving liquid in the hydrophobic chamber. By switching the segmented concentric control electrodes in steps, digital operation of the MEFI was successfully observed with clear aperture stops. The measured turnaround speed was 80 mm/s, which is significantly higher than that for other comparable adaptive liquid irises. Due to a scalable aperture range with fast response, the concept of MEFI is expected to be widely applied in various optical systems that require high-quality imaging, as well as in real-time diagnostic OCT.