Gas Absorption in Package Using Au/Pt/Ti Bonding Layer
Authors: Matsumae Takashi , Kariya Shingo , Kurashima Yuichi , Takagi Hideki , Hayase Masanori , Higurashi Eiji 
Published: December 2020

Vacuum packaging is required for the successful long-term operation of various kinds of micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices. The following points are important to complete and maintain encapsulated internal vacuum conditions:

Degassing MEMS assemblies before packaging

Packaging MEMS devices without leakage

Absorbing residual gases after packaging

Our research group has developed a simplified MEMS packaging process using a Au/Ti layer (from top to bottom) as a bonding and gettering layer[1]. The assemblies were firstly metalized with thin Au/Ti films. The Au surfaces formed direct bonding without leakage even at room temperature. Moreover, when the packaged structure was annealed at 200 °C, the Ti atoms diffused to the inner surface of the package and absorbed residual gas molecules. This approach allows the simplification of the MEMS packaging process as the bonding and gettering layers can be simultaneously fabricated.

However, we found that the Au/Ti film cannot form bonding after degas annealing at 200 °C because Ti oxides were formed on the surface. The annealing at 200 °C effectively removes the water molecules physi and chemi-sorbed on the MEMS assemblies, which deteriorate the packaged environment. The purpose of this study is to develop a metal multilayer that enables both the packaging after degassing at 200 °C and the absorption of residual gas at higher temperatures. The diffusion of Ti atoms can be controlled by fabricating a Pt barrier layer between the Au and Ti layers. A thick Pt layer enables bonding after degassing by preventing the diffusion of Ti during degassing. However, the gas absorption process requires a moderate thickness of the Pt layer because the Ti atoms should reach the surface at high temperatures. In this study, the packaging using thin Au/Pt/Ti multilayers were performed for the advanced MEMS packaging process.

For the fabrication of packaged environments, a Si substrate with cavities was bonded with a flat Si substrate using the Au/Pt/Ti layers, as illustrated in Fig. 1. They were thermally oxidized before the bonding procedures. Firstly, the substrates were metalized with Au/Pt/Ti layers of 3/5/40 nm in thickness. The substrates were annealed at 200 °C under vacuum conditions for degassing. Immediately after degassing, the Au surfaces were brought in contact and pressed for the bond formation. Figure 2 shows the mapping of the interfacial gaps observed using a scanning acoustic microscope. Ultrasonic waves reflected in the bright areas, indicating the presence of unbonded areas at the interface. The bright square-shaped regions were due to the packaged areas. While particles on the surface were observed as tiny round voids, there was no leak path for the packages.

For the absorption of residual gas molecules, the bonded specimens were annealed at 450 °C for 180 min. Figure 3 depicts the X-ray photoelectron spectra obtained from the inner surface of the annealed package. While the Ti atoms were absent on the surface before the high-temperature annealing step, Ti compounds were present after the high-temperature annealing. This is indicated that the Ti diffused through the Au and Pt layers and reacted with the residual gas molecules on the surface.

These results suggested that the 3/5/40-nm-thick Au/Pt/Ti layers can form direct bonding after degassing and also absorb residual gas molecules in the package. We expect that this packaging technique would contribute to future MEMS manufacturing because high-vacuum sealing can be obtained by the simple metal multilayer structure.

[1]. Y. Kurashima et al., 45th International Conference on Micro and Nano Engineering, 2019.

Figure 1