High temperature anodic bonding apparatus

Abstract

An anodic bonding apparatus includes: a first bonding plate mechanism operable to engage a first material sheet, and to provide at least one of controlled heating, voltage, and cooling thereto; a second bonding plate mechanism operable to engage a second material sheet, and to provide at least one of controlled heating, voltage, and cooling thereto; a pressure mechanism operatively coupled to the first and second bonding plate mechanisms and operable to urge the first and second bonding plate mechanisms toward one another to achieve controlled pressure of the first and second material sheets against one another along respective surfaces thereof; a control unit operable to produce control signals to the first and second bonding plate mechanisms and the pressure mechanism to provide heating, voltage, and pressure profiles sufficient to achieve anodic bonding between the first and second material sheets.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 793,976, filed Apr. 21, 2006 by Raymond C. Cady, entitled “A BONDING PLATE MECHANISM FOR USE IN ANODIC BONDING,” now pending, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND [0002] The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing, for example, a semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) structure using an anodic bonding technique. [0003] To date, the semiconductor material most commonly used in semiconductor-on-insulator structures has been silicon, and the abbreviation “SOI” has been applied to such structures. SOI technology is becoming increasingly important for high performance thin film transistors, solar cells, and displays, such as, active matrix displays. [0004] For ease of presentation, the following discussion will at times refer to SOI structures, however, such references to this particular type of structure are made ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] In accordance with one or more further embodiments of the present invention, an anodic bonding apparatus includes: a first bonding plate mechanism operable to engage a first material sheet, and to provide at least one of controlled heating and voltage thereto; a second bonding plate mechanism operable to engage a second material sheet, and to provide at least one of controlled heating and voltage thereto; and a lift and press mechanism operatively coupled to the first bonding plate mechanism and operable to urge the first and second bonding plate mechanisms toward one another to achieve controlled pressure of the first and second material sheets against one another along respective surfaces thereof to assist in the anodic bonding of same.

Problems solved by technology

Notably, this process does not generally work with glass or glass-ceramic substrates because much higher temperatures are required for bonding some glass and glass-ceramic substrates.

Conventional techniques for the anodic bonding of a semiconductor layer to a glass or glass-ceramic substrate do not adequately address the above process variables.

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