Abstract:
There is a need to directly bond a wide variety of
inorganic materials such as oxides, nitrides, carbides, fluorides, diamond, and
semiconductors in the packaging of optical, MEMS, and electronic devices,. Such
applications involve hermetic sealing components, three-dimensional MEMS
assembly components as well as active semiconductor or optical components, dielectric layers, diffusion
barriers, wave guides, and heat sinks.
These materials are known to be very difficult to wet and bond with low
melting point solders. In this
presentation, new Sn-Ag or Au-Sn based universal solders doped with a small
amount of rare-earth elements which now
allow direct and powerful bonding onto the surfaces of various MEMS, optical or
electronic device materials. The
microstructure, interface properties, and mechanical behavior of the bonds will
be described, and the areas for further improvement will be discussed. Potential packaging applications of these
new solder materials for devices including MEMS and optical fiber devices
will also be discussed.