Abstract:
A swage hermetic sealing of a MEMS or microdevice or nanodevice package using high force. A cutting and flowing edge  430  is formed on a package cover which is pressed into a mating , integral gasket  425  on a package base. A material extension of the package cover  450  is simultaneously folded under the package base to supply force maintenance for permanent hermaticity. The swage hermetic sealing of single or an array of covers to an extended wafer or substrate is accomplished by a cutting and flowing edge  560 . Permanent force maintenance is achieved through a re-entrant cavity  565  and annular ring  535  on the wafer or substrate.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 60/550,844 filed Mar. 8, 2004 and Disclosure Document No. 542148. filed Nov. 17, 2003. Subject matter set forth in Provisional Patent No. 60/550,844 and Disclosure Document No. 542148 is hereby incorporated by reference into the present application as if fully set forth herein. 
     
    
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY FUNDED REASERCH AND DEVELOPMENT  
       [0002]     None  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Hermetic microdevice packages enjoy wide use in the semiconductor industry in applications where true hermeticity is required. Such hermeticity is required where any outside of the package ambient conditions or variations in the ambient conditions might affect device performance. Generally in the semiconductor industry hermetic passivation layers have been developed and applied to the surface of sensitive devices in order to give a primary level of defense against ambient conditions. Some of these layers are adequately hermetic. In other instances a hermetic package is required. Such hermetic packages are in common use for the sealing of semiconductor devices and other microdevices including the aformentioned MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) devices.  
         [0004]     Such hermetic packages consist of a package base commonly with electrical feedthrus insulated from such base for the purpose of extracting electrical signals from the active device inside the package. The sensitive active device is mounted on the package base and microwire bonds are made to connect the device output pads to the package base electrical feedthrus. Finally a cover or cap is attached to the base via a hermetic bonding technique which varies according the package material and its preparation. For convenience and high thruput all prior bonding techniques require some degree of heat application to insure a hermetic bond of cap to base. The bonding is required to be executed in the rarified atmosphere or vacuum that is required in the package after bonding.  
         [0005]     The two most common cap to base bonding techniques involve cap welding or solder sealing. Cap welding is accomplished by passing a high weld current through a tip (often a small roller) which precesses around the rim of the cap/package assembly as it locally melts two metal members together. The solder sealing technique utilizes a solder preform (commonly gold/tin eutectic solder) placed between a gold plated cap and base followed by the application of a heated ring at around 320° C. to melt the solder and effect the hermetic seal. Both of these techniques result in a considerable amount of heat transmitted through the package base and into the active device. Although there are methods of reducing the amount of heat transfer to the active device it is not possible to eliminate the device heating altogether.  
         [0006]     In addition to the active device heating described above, heat generated at the sealing surfaces releases contaminants to the inside of the package which can affect the performance of unpassivated devices. This can be especially destructive to unpassivated MEMS devices where micro-mechanical moving parts are fully exposed to released contaminants due to the sealing heat cycle  
         [0007]     MicroElectroMechanical devices which exhibit free-standing micro mechanical structures have been hermetically packaged using both cap-welding and solder-sealing technology. However, due to residual stress in free standing members and the extreme sensitivity of structure surfaces to contamination, more complex MEMS devices cannot tolerate heat during the packaging operation. For such devices a room temperature package sealing process would be of great benefit.  
         [0008]     Room temperature hermetic sealing has been utilized in Ultra High Vacuum (UHV) technology for a number of years and is pervasive in the art of that technology. U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,758, Carlson and Wheeler, describes a vacuum seal technique suitable for high temperature baking after a room temperature seal has been implemented. The patent is focused on large flanges used in UHV vacuum system assembly. A copper gasket seal is described wherein two mating vacuum parts structured with vertical and sloping cutting edges are swaged into the copper gasket to effect a vacuum seal. The high force required for the deformation of the copper is achieved by tightening a series of bolts and nuts around the periphery of a flange. The seal is maintained by the force of these bolts. A preferred shape of the cutting edge is disclosed although the force required to effect a vacuum tight seal is not disclosed. The assembly including the copper gasket and cutting edge shape has come to be known as a “conflat” type vacuum fitting and is in wide use in the vacuum equipment industry. It has not been applied to microdevice packaging.  
         [0009]     Additional embodiments of the basic “conflat” sealing technique can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,992, Glasgow, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,818, Asamaki, et. al., both describing alternative bolting attachment geometries to effect the metal seal. Neither patents addresses the possibility of applying the technique to seal MEMS or microdevice packages.  
         [0010]     With recent rapid advances in MEMS technology leading to more sophisticated devices there has been many efforts to develop suitable packaging technology. The focus has been on both single MEMS die packaging and packaging at the wafer level. MEMS devices packaged at the wafer level is particularly attractive due to the unique fabrication technology involved. Virtually all MEMS devices end up as micro mechanical elements suspended in space. Thus during the fabrication process they must be supported by a sacrificial material usually through several levels of processing until the end of the fabrication sequence. At the end of the process the sacrificial material is removed leaving the micro mechanical members preserved in their design space. Clearly it is desirable from a cost point of view to remove (called release) the temporary support on a whole wafer rather than individual tiny die. However once release is performed the MEMS devices cannot be singulated without the individual mechanical parts being damaged or becoming stuck together (called stiction). The solution then to performing release at the wafer scale is to also package hermetically at the wafer scale prior to die singulation.  
         [0011]     Recent development work in MEMS packaging at the wafer scale has focused on bonding directly to the silicon substrate that was used as the MEMS substrate. This includes anodic/fusion bonding using high electric fields, eutectic bonding using heating to form a eutectic bond between gold or aluminum to silicon and thermocompression bonding. The novel application of heat has been explored by using a polysilicon resistance heater element embedded directly into the MEMS devices. Such recent work has not included attempts to use the compression swaging technique disclosed herein.  
         [0012]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,379,988 B1, Petersen and Conley describe a pre release plastic packaging of MEMS devices wherein the device is encapsulated in a plastic package prior to release. The plastic package can be perforated to allow release in the package using wet or dry etching processes. In a final step a cover lid is attached to the plastic package by various means common in prior art.  
         [0013]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,009 B1, Bishop, et. al., discloses a MEMS package and bonding means employing a firewall to form a protective cavity for the MEMS device during heat sealing of top and bottom members of the package. Electrical feedthrus that penetrate the firewall are disclosed and may be made of polysilicon conductive material encapsulated with silicon dioxide. All structures disclosed are fabricated concurrently with the MEMS device. An integral plurality of solder bumps is utilized and claimed as a means of strengthening the solder bonded parts. The sealing means described is by heated solder sealing.  
         [0014]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,627,814B1, David H. Stark, discloses a package with a continuous sidewall with a top surface prepared for solder sealing. A transparent window forms a top cover. The window is prepared with an outer metallic frame suitable for soldering to the base. The solder method requires the application of heat above the melting temperature of the solder.  
         [0015]     U.S. Pat. No. 6,639,313 B1, Martin and Harney, discloses a ceramic package with a recess for holding an optical MEMS mirror device. A glass window cover is disclosed which is heat solder sealed to the ceramic substrate by means of a flexible, folded metal interposer disposed peripherally around the edge of the glass window and ceramic base. Uniquely the folded metal interposer allows the difference in expansion and contraction between the window and the ceramic to be mitigated during heat cycling. Hermeticity is achieved by heat soldering.  
       OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION  
       [0016]     An object of the invention is to adapt the high vacuum compression seal technology first disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,758 to the hermetic sealing of singulated and released MEMS and other microdevices. An additional object is to employ the same hermetic sealing technique to MEMS devices at a wafer level scale where release has been executed at the wafer scale.  
         [0017]     Another object of the invention is to provide a device consisting of a vacuum seal structure and a force maintenance structure that will achieve a high degree of hermeticity.  
         [0018]     A further object of the invention is to form a seal ring of copper or other suitable material such as indium or gold for example on one member of a package cap or base assembly by means of plating or cladding. Such seal ring will form the gasket material suitable for a hermetic seal.  
         [0019]     Another object of the invention is to form a cutting and swaging structure on one or both package base and cap for the purpose of cutting and flowing the seal ring material. A further object of the invention is to maintain force to hold the base and cap together for the life of the package without the use of bolts.  
         [0020]     Another object of the invention is to form a structure on either package cap or base that will, after compression sealing maintain the force required to keep the package and base under compression.  
         [0021]     A further object and advantage of the invention is to form such gasket, cutting and flowing edge and locking mechanism on a substrate at the wafer scale thus enabling the basic bonding technology to be extended to wafer scale hermetic packaging.  
         [0022]     Another object and advantage of the invention is to form a hermetic seal at room temperature with such seal exhibiting a leak rate of less than 10ˆ-9 Torr liter/sec.  
         [0023]     A specific advantage of the invention is a method of room temperature hermetic sealing of MEMS devices that exhibit sensitivity to heat cycling during the sealing operation.  
         [0024]     Another advantage of the invention is very high thruput sealing since only a single compression step is required for making a hermetic seal. No heat cycling with attendant solder melt or welding dwell times is required.  
         [0025]     Another advantage of the invention is its application to microdevices other than MEMS such as hybrid assemblies, vacuum microelectronics and semiconductor devices that may require a high degree of hermeticity.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0026]     An invention is disclosed which utilizes a copper or other metal gasket and cutting edge swaging technology to form a hermetic MEMS or microdevice package. In the single die packaging embodiment conventional semiconductor packages are modified or new packages are developed to provide a cutting edge structure on one or both of the cap and base. An integral, plated or separate metal gasket is provided to implement the hermetic seal. A metal forming structure is provided for maintaining force on the cap and base assembly after hermetic compression. The metal forming structure is actuated with compression bonding simultaneously with or after through the use of a compound bonding head die.  
         [0027]     The invention is extended to wafer scale packaging of MEMS and other microdevices through the fabrication of suitable structures for cap attachment and retaining structures during the fabrication sequence for the MEMS or microdevices. Packaging structures may be fabricated by plating or etching into the substrate at various stages during device fabrication. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES  
       [0028]      FIG. 1  shows a prior art sealing technology for attaching a package cap to a base.  
         [0029]      FIG. 2  shows a prior art wafer scale packaging technology utilizing an integral localized heater for performing an individual cap attachment sequentially at each die site on a wafer.  
         [0030]      FIG. 3  shows a prior art wafer scale packaging technology wherein an entire wafer is capped and sealed at once using anodic, fusion or eutectic bonding.  
         [0031]      FIG. 4   a  shows an exemplary structure of a package cap and base prior to compression bonding according to the disclosures of this invention.  
         [0032]      FIG. 4   b  shows the structure of the package cap and base after compression bond and sealing.  
         [0033]      FIG. 5   a  shows a preferred structure for a package cap and package base structure wherein the package base consists of a plurality of un-singulated microdevices.  
         [0034]      FIG. 5   b  shows the structure of a package cap and a wafer scale base consisting of a plurality of un-singulated microdevices after compression bond and sealing.  
         [0035]      FIG. 6  shows detail of the knife edge sealing region preferred structure for the wafer scale sealing technology. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0036]     Although the following detailed description delineates many specific attributes of the invention and describes specific fabrication procedures those skilled in the art of microfabrication will realize that many variations and alterations in the fabrication details and the basic structures are possible without departing from the generality of the processes and structures.. The most general attributes of the invention relate to a structure and method of making a hermetic seal between a package base and cap at room temperature. By altering the structure of the seal mechanism hermetic seals can be executed at a single package level or a wafer scale level.  
         [0037]     Extensive prior art in the packaging of microdevices is shown in  FIGS. 1, 2  and  3 .  FIG. 1  delineates a hypothetical MEMS device  130  mounted on package base  120  with electrical feedthrus  170  penetrating the base and insulated from the base by insulator  180 . MEMS device  130  is attached to the base  120  using material  140  which may typically be solder or organic adhesive. Wire bonds  150  connect the MEMS device electrically to feedthrus  170 . MEMS die  130  may be released from their temporary support either as a singulated die before mounting on the package base or after mounting on the base. The MEMS device may also be tested after mounting on the base in an appropriate environment of rarified gas or in vacuum. Package cap  110  is conventionally attached using heat soldering with solder preform  160  or can be weld-sealed directly cap-to-base without solder. The package base and cap will typically be metal (often kovar) and be plated with a solderable metal in the case of solder sealing. After sealing the space  190  is hermetic and the atmosphere during sealing is trapped therein and thus constitutes the operational ambient during the life of the device. There are a number of variations on this single package assembly relating to the method of MEMS die attach, configuration of the electrical feedthrus in the base and package profile variation as a function of how the package is attached at the PC board level. All variations are well documented in the prior art.  
         [0038]      FIG. 2  represent a different prior art approach to MEMS packaging in that caps are applied to the MEMS devices prior to die singulation. The substantial advantage is that MEMS release can be performed on a whole substrate at once rather than one die at a time. The MEMS chips are protected by the cap during singulation that often includes a wet sawing step. Thus referring to  FIG. 2 , substrate  210  represents a portion of a large substrate containing many die. The substrate may include electrical feedthrus  205  with filled, electrically conductive, thru vias with wire bond connections  240  directly connected to the vias. Electrically conductive vias may be insulated from an electrically conductive substrate by peripheral insulator  255  when required. MEMS device  245  is mounted upon base  210  using material  235 . In this concept a polysilicon heater (or other conductor material)  220  is deposited in an annular ring around the periphery of the die site (but inside the scribe lines). If the substrate is conductive the heater ring is insulated from the base by insulator  215  and insulated from the cap  250  (if required) by insulator  225 . A top solder ring  230  is provided in registration with the heater ring and will form a seal between the metal on the cap and the metal layer (not shown) on the base under the solder. Current is supplied to the resistance heater element  230  from off the substrate through peripheral leads. Thus a solder seal can be executed by localized heating close to the solder location which minimizes the heat flux in the vicinity of the die.  
         [0039]     Another prior art wafer scale packaging technique is shown in  FIG. 3 . An array of MEMS die  320  can be released from the temporary support at the wafer scale. A portion of a larger array of MEMS die is shown on substrate  330 . The die are separated by wide scribe lines  360 . An entire matching substrate, a portion of which is shown in  FIG. 3, 310  can be bonded by pressure and electric field application (called anodic or fusion bonding). Cavities  340  formed in the extended cap substrate provide space for the MEMS devices after bonding. However for the process to function at a high level of yield the matching substrates must be very flat for intimate contact everywhere and the cap and base material system must be amenable to such a process. Silicon substrates are commonly used with silicon caps. After wafer scale bonding the die can be singulated by sawing without damage to the active MEMS devices. A variety of prior art sealing techniques are used and described in the literature. Among them covalent bonding requires near perfect atomic flatness of the two mating surfaces but can be accomplished at room temperature. Anodic and Fusion bonding requires extremely flat mating surfaces along with high electric fields and varying degrees of heat. Eutectic bonding is accomplished at elevated temperatures where the two members form a eutectic bond such as between silicon and gold. Solder bonding makes use of elevated temperatures to melt a solder alloy which wet a precursor metallization on the cap and base wafer.  
         [0040]     The invention described herein utilizes an entirely different approach to hermetic package sealing.  FIG. 4   a  shows in cross section a package cap  405  which may be circular or square from top view and similar to a conventional semiconductor package cap. A matching base  410  is shown below and in rough alignment with cap  405 . Cap and base are prepared separately but are of the same metal material or if of different material the Thermal Coefficient of Expansion (TCE) should be closely matched. Exemplary materials for the base and cap include the steel alloy Kovar, stainless steel and other formable buy refractory metals. The cap is formed by stamping or machining. Critical for the execution of the invention is the cutting edge  430  which runs circumferentially and continuously around the rim of the cap. Another exemplary material is high impact plastic which has been molded to provide the cutting edge. Alternatively the cutting edge may be formed on the base. The structure  430  is formed during the stamping or machining of the cap. The shape of the structure is nominally as shown and includes an outer vertical edge and a gently sloping surface toward the interior. The angle of the sloping side may be at a 10 to 30 degree acute angle from the flat surface it projects from. The height of the sharp cutting tip may be of the order of 100 to 500 μm from the flat surface. Variations from these dimensions will occur based on the cap material used and the size of the package being made. Base  410  is a conventional semiconductor type metal base with electrical feedthrus  420  and insulator  415 , with MEMS die  440  connected to feedthrus  420  by bond wire  435 . The peripheral area of the base is plated or clad with a metal gasket layer  425  which is sealed hermetically to the base  410 . This layer need not be restricted as shown but may cover the entire metallic base. The thickness of gasket layer  425  is approximately twice the thickness of cutting edge  430  height. Exemplary materials for Gasket  425  are copper and other deformable materials such as gold, indium and indium/tin/silver alloys.  
         [0041]     Continuing with  FIG. 4   b  the cap is compression bonded to the base in a rarified gas or vacuum environment at room temperature using a high force compression bonder equipped with a compound die head. With copper as a gasket sealing material a force of from 30 to 100 lbs per mm of seal edge is required depending on the design of the cutting edge. Alignment of cap to base can be achieved using an indexing X-Y stage to move the base under the cap. Sufficient force is applied between cap and base to bury the cutting edge  430  against the underside surface of the cap as shown in  FIG. 4   b . During compression softer gasket metal flows laterally along the sloping edge of the cutting structure  430  filling in any surface imperfections that can contribute to leakage paths through the vacuum seal created by structure  430 . A movable section of the compound bonding die moves laterally inward on sections of the package periphery folding the lower edge of the cap extension in under the package base. The folded edge of the cap maintains the force needed to keep cap  405  connected to base  410 .  
         [0042]     The compression bonding invention is extended to a wafer scale sealing application as exemplified in cross section of  FIG. 5   a  and  b . Assembly  500  in  FIG. 5   a  represents a specialized package cap  510  with re-entrant cavity  565  formed via two stamping processes. Cap  510  is stamped from appropriate metal or other hermetic material, typically in square shape, while square, annular ring  515  is stamped separately from the same material that comprises cap  510 . Cap  510  contains the cutting and sealing structure  560  stamped integrally with cap  510 . Annular ring  515  is attached and aligned to cap  510  by solder, brazing, cladding or other means to form re-entrant cavity  565 . Cap  510  may be disposed with a glass top surface window for optical microdevice applications. A single die section of substrate  505  is shown in  FIG. 5a  but it represents an extended portion of a substrate or wafer containing a large array of MEMS or other die that have been fabricated integrally to substrate  505  or added by bonding as shown in the figure. Multiple sub die may be attached to within the single die site shown in the figure. Substrate  505  will typically contain hermetic electrical feedthrus  520  insulated as necessary from the conducting substrate by insulator  525 . Wire bends  540  connect die  545  to feedthrus  520 . Die sites on substrate  505  are prepared for accepting caps  510  by applying a compressible metal ring  535  peripherally and continuously around each die site. In one embodiment this is accomplished through conventional semiconductor copper bumping technology. During the fabrication process for the MEMS device at the wafer level and usually near the end of the process a robust adhesion layer  530  is applied, typically by physical vapor deposition. Chromium and titanium/tungsten alloy are exemplary materials for this adhesion layer but other refractory materials may be used for compatibility with the rest of the MEMS fabrication steps. The adhesion layer is followed by the physical vapor deposition of a platable precursor material  575  of the same composition as annular ring  535 . Both layers  530  and  575  cover the surface of the substrate and are unpatterned. A conventional photomasking step follows the layer  530  and  575  depositions and defines an opening in conventional resist layer that matches exactly the opening  565  in the cap  510 . Electrical connection is made to the blanket films  530  and  575  and annular ring  535  is plated to the required thickness. The plated material will typically be copper, gold or indium, for example, depending on the degree of bonding force and mechanical integrity required. Finally the resist mask is removed and the thick annular plated ring is used as an etch mask to remove the thin deposited layers  530  and  575 .  
         [0043]     Refering again to  FIG. 5   a  cap  510  and substrate or wafer has been prepared as described and shown in the drawing. MEMS devices on substrate  505  have been released and electrically probed for functionality. In a vacuum or rarified atmosphere and using appropriate alignment and compression bonding equipment caps  510  are bonded sequentially to all the die sites on substrate  505 .  FIG. 5   b  indicates the morphology of a compression bonded die site. Plated metal gasket  555  having been fabricated slightly thicker than the cavity  565  in  FIG. 5   a  is compressed vertically while flowing horizontally to fill the re-entrant cavity  565  in  FIG. 5   a . Cutting edge structure  560  of  FIG. 5   a  forms a hermetic seal in the top of the plated annular ring  535  of  FIG. 5   a . The compressed annular ring structure  555  functions to maintain pressure on hermetic seal structure  560 .  
         [0044]     The present invention is well adapted to carry out the objects and attain the ends and advantages mentioned as well as other inherent therein. While a present embodiment of the invention has been described for the purpose of disclosure, numerous changes or alterations in the details of construction and steps of the method will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. These are encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention.