451 results about "Anodic bonding" patented technology

Systems and methods related to an image sensor of one or more embodiments include subjecting a donor semiconductor wafer to an ion implantation process to create an exfoliation layer of semiconductor film on the donor semiconductor wafer, forming an anodic bond between the exfoliation layer and an insulator substrate by means of electrolysis; separating the exfoliation layer from the donor semiconductor wafer to transfer the exfoliation layer to the insulator substrate; and creating a plurality of image sensor features proximate to the exfoliation layer. Forming the anodic bonding by electrolysis may include the application of heat, pressure and voltage to the insulator structure and the exfoliation layer attached to the donor semiconductor wafer. Image sensor devices include an insulator structure, a semiconductor film, an anodic bond between them, and a plurality of image sensor features. The semiconductor film preferably comprises an exfoliation layer of a substantially single-crystal donor semiconductor wafer.

An indirect bonding apparatus is made by initially placing spacer material over a replica of the patient's tooth structure. A tray is then formed over the spacer material and hardened. Next, the spacer material is removed from the tooth replica and orthodontic appliances are placed on the replica at desired locations. A matrix material is placed between the tray and the replica and allowed to harden. Optionally, the apparatus includes features for facilitating removal of the transfer apparatus after the bonding procedure has been completed, and features for applying firm, uniform pressure to the appliances during the bonding procedure. Other aspects of indirect bonding are also described.

A method of fabricating compact alkali vapor filled cells that have volumes of 1 cm³ or less that are useful in atomic frequency reference devices such as atomic clocks. According to one embodiment the alkali vapor filled cells are formed by sealing the ends of small hollow glass fibers. According to another embodiment the alkali vapor filled cells are formed by anodic bonding of glass plates to silicon wafers to seal the openings of holes formed in the silicon wafers. The anodic bonding method of fabricating the alkali vapor filled cells enables the production of semi-monolithic integrated physics packages of various designs.

The present invention provides multi-layered microfluidic devices comprising an interface layer between every two substrate layers. The interface layer simplifies the manufacturing process of the multi-layered devices because the interface may comprise a material suitable for etching whereby manufacturing of these devices is simplified to a great extent.

The invention also provides methods of manufacturing the multi-layered devices wherein the devices may comprise substrates composed of non-similar materials that are bonded together by anodic bonding.

An optical switch includes a substrate having therein optical waveguides made of silicon and a silicon layer deposited on its top surface. A space is formed in the crossing portion of the optical waveguides which is covered with a lid, preferably made of low alkali borosilicate glass, and which is bonded to the silicon layer by anodic bonding. Preferably, a groove is formed in a surface of the optical waveguide substrate or a bonding surface of the lid. The groove, after the lid has been bonded, makes a passage which communicates between the space and an outside. The passage is a pouring slit for pouring an index-matching liquid and is connected to the space which acts as a driving slit in which the index-matching liquid moves. In one embodiment, the width of the pouring slit is smaller than that of the driving slit. The optical switch can be manufactured by providing an optical waveguide substrate and a lid substrate, one of which is formed with a groove in its surface on which the two substrates are bonded. The optical waveguide substrate and the lid substrate are bonded together by anodic bonding to make a passage which communicates between the space formed in a crossing portion of the optical waveguides and an outside. The regulation of the volume of the index-matching liquid is time-, temperature-, or pressure-based regulation.

Conventional heat bonding and anodic bonding require heating at high temperature and for a long time, leading to poor production efficiency and occurrence of a warp due to a difference in thermal expansion, resulting in a defective device. Such a problem is solved. An upper wafer 7 made of glass and a lower wafer 8 made of Si are surface-activated using an energy wave before performing anodic bonding, thereby performing bonding at low temperature and increasing a bonding strength. In addition, preliminary bonding due to surface activation is performed before main bonding due to anodic bonding is performed in a separate step or device, thereby increasing production efficiency, and enabling bonding of a three-layer structure without occurrence of a warp.

Photovoltaic devices include an insulator structure bonded to an exfoliation layer, preferably of a substantially single-crystal donor semiconductor wafer, and at least one photovoltaic device layer, such as a conductive layer. In a preferred embodiment, a device may include a conductive layer adjacent to the insulator substrate and integral to the exfoliation layer, near the side that faces the insulator substrate, such as between the insulator substrate and the exfoliation layer. In a further preferred embodiment, a device may include a plurality of photovoltaic device layers distal to the insulator substrate and in or on the exfoliation layer, preferably having been epitaxially grown on the exfoliation layer after the exfoliation layer has been anodically bonded to the insulator substrate by means of electrolysis.

The invention relates to a preparation method for a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) atomic vapor chamber and the atomic vapor chamber. The chamber is prepared by bonding a Pyrex glass sheet, a silicon wafer and a Pyrex glass sheet by an anodic bonding technology; the Pyrex glass sheet is taken as a window of the chamber; a chamber space is formed by etching or corroding the silicon wafer; paraffin packaged alkali metal such as rubidium (Rb) or cesium (Cs) is put into the chamber, and buffer gas with appropriate pressure is introduced simultaneously; paraffin is taken as a packaging material of the alkali metal, so that active alkali metal is isolated from oxidants such as oxygen, water vapor and the like in an environment; the paraffin is also used as a plating material of the chamber, so that collision between Rb or Cs atoms and a chamber wall is slowed down; and a CO2 laser is used for melting the paraffin to release the alkali metal, so that a uniform paraffin plating is formed on the chamber wall. The problem of long-term drift caused by reaction residues generated by a field preparation mode is solved, the collision between the Rb or Cs atoms and the chamber wall is slowed down, and the contrast of atomic resonance line width of the alkali metal is improved.

The invention discloses packaging equipment for a micro atomic gas chamber and a process technology method thereof. The equipment comprises a sample chamber, a pressure bar, a sample wafer, a sample stage, a heating wire, a temperature measurement probe, a vacuum pump connector, an inflation inlet, a direct-current high-voltage power supply, a voltmeter, a resistor, and other measurement and control devices. The method comprises: step 1, the selection of materials; step 2, the processing of the materials; step 3, the washing of the sample wafer; step 4, the bonding of a first surface; step 5, the bonding of a second surface; and step 6, the detection of a sample, and is a method which closes metal rubidium generated by adopting an in-situ chemical reaction method in a micro gas chamber. The method has the advantages that the special equipment is a common high vacuum system which is based on an anode bonding technology principle and adopts a relatively cheap mechanical pump, namely molecular pump air-bleed set; at the same time, inert gas is used to take measures such as the repeated inflation to the vacuum system to clean, the high temperature baking to the local sample wafer to remove gas and so on, to lighten the influence of residual gas and adsorbed gas as far as possible, particularly lighten the oxidation of rubidium.

This invention discloses one Fabry-Perot fiber pressure sensor, which comprises single silicon slice, glass round tube, fiber flange disc and fiber plug and is characterized by the following: the single silicon slice and glass round tube one end are connected through anode keys; other end of round tube is added to fiber flange disc tank; the fiber plug is connected to flange disc with ceramics needle and silicon slice form the chamber. This invention also discloses one method for it, which comprises the following steps: putting the cut glass tube and silicon slice onto key furnace; the glass tube outer wall is coasted with epoxy resin to flange concave tank; connecting the fiber plug into fiber flange disc to form the chamber.

The invention provides a manufacturing method of a wafer level glass microcavity used for packaging an MEMS, which comprises the following steps of: (1) etching a shallow slot on an Si wafer by an Si microfabrication process; (2) placing a right amount of high-temperature gas release agent in the shallow slot; (3) carrying out anodic bonding on the Si wafer and a Pyrex7740 glass wafer in air or vacuum and enabling the shallow slot on the Pyrex7740 glass to form a sealed cavity body; and (4) heating the bonded wafer in the air to the temperature of 810-890 DEG C, keeping the temperature for 3-5min, enabling molten glass corresponding to the sealed cavity body to be in a spherical shape by the high-temperature gas release agent because of positive pressure generated by gas generated by heating, cooling to the normal temperature, annealing and removing a silicon wafer to obtain a wafer level spherical glass microcavity array. The invention adopts the release of the high-temperature gas release agent to provide a gas source, is used for forming the glass microcavity and has the characteristics of low cost, simple method, high forming height and good degree of sphericity.

Several micro-machined, ultra-profile two-axis and three-axis accelerometers are fabricated by CMOS-compatible process, which makes them suitable for volume production. The x, y axis signal is based on natural thermal convection, and z-axis signal may be based on thermal convention or piezoresistive in nature. The bulk MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems) process is based on Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE). After the front-end fabrication process, the accelerometers are packaged at wafer level by glass frit and/or anodic bonding, which lowers the device cost.

The invention provides a silicon-glass micro pressure sensor chip of an island membrane self-packaging structure and a manufacturing method, and relates to a micro pressure sensor. The silicon-glass micro pressure sensor chip of the island membrane self-packaging structure and the manufacturing method are not only high in reliability but also suitable for severe environments of moist, acid-base, static electricity and the like. The silicon-glass micro pressure sensor chip of the island membrane self-packaging structure is provided with a pressure sensing membrane and a base provided with a cavity; the pressure sensing membrane is of an obverse side island membrane composite structure, four voltage dependent resistors are arranged in a concentration area with the maximum stress of the island membrane composite structure, the four voltage dependent resistors form a Wheatstone bridge through metal electrodes, a silicon-glass anodic bonding process is adopted to enable the Wheatstone bridge to be sealed in a sealed absolute pressure cavity, and the Wheatstone bridge enables an interface preset electrode to be connected with external testing equipment through metal leads to form a complete pressure sensitive and measuring system. The manufacturing method comprises the steps of technological manufacturing of an SOI wafer; manufacturing of a substrate part; bonding and follow-up processes.

A method for anodic bonding of wafers and a device essentially composed of such bonded wafers. An intermediate layer is placed between two wafers, after which the two wafers are anodically bonded. The method and the device have the advantage of being implementable and manufacturable, respectively, in a particularly cost-effective manner. The anodically bonded intermediate layer plastically encloses any possible particles present or evens out differences in height of the wafer surfaces to be bonded and thus prevents any extensive bond defects from occurring.

Provided are a glass substrate bonding method capable of securely anodically bonding a bonding material and a glass substrate even when Si having a large resistance value is used as a material for the bonding material, a glass assembly obtained by the glass substrate bonding method, a package manufacturing method, a package, a piezoelectric vibrator, and an oscillator, an electronic device, and a radio-controlled timepiece having the piezoelectric vibrator. A glass substrate bonding method includes an anodic bonding step of anodically bonding a bonding material fixed to an inner surface of a lid substrate wafer to a base substrate wafer. The bonding material is formed of an ITO film and a Si film which are sequentially formed on the inner surface of the lid substrate wafer.

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.

A semiconductor sensor mount is formed as follows: through holes are formed that penetrate a glass plate; and then the glass plate having the through holes is dipped into hydrofluoric acid etchant to smooth the inner peripheral surfaces of the respective through holes. By etching the inner peripheral surfaces of the respective through holes after the through hole formation, minute roughness and cracks formed on the inner peripheral surfaces are removed, and thereby the areas for adsorbing gas are substantially reduced. That is, vacuums within the through holes can be maintained at a high degree during the anodic bonding, whereby undesirable electric discharge phenomena are prevented even if a relatively high voltage is applied during the anodic bonding. Accordingly, the yield of products can be improved while improving productivity.

Improved methods for indirect bonding of orthodontic appliances, such as brackets, to the tooth surfaces of dental patients are provided. The methods use a transfer tray to accurately position the brackets on the tooth surfaces. Preferably, the tray is made of an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA)/siloxane material. The brackets are coated with a protective coating to prevent them from becoming embedded in the tray. Preferably, a translucent, blue-tinted coating is used to cover the brackets. Dental restorative materials are used to bond the brackets to the teeth. The transfer tray is then removed from the mouth, while the appliances remain firmly bonded to the tooth surfaces.