Patent ID: 7520161

Claim:
A process for evaluating the hermeticity of a wafer connection, the process comprising: manufacturing a test structure by: forming a micromechanical sensor structure and an adjacent melt structure with electric strip conductors and first contacting islands which are connected with the micromechanical sensor structure and second contacting islands which are connected with the melt structure on a base wafer, and creating a cavity by connecting a cover wafer with the base wafer so that the micromechanical sensor structure and the melt structure are located in the cavity; and impressing a current into the second contacting islands in order to cause the melt structure to melt for the purpose of the hermeticity test of the cavity, whereby a change in pressure is generated in the interior of the cavity, the change in pressure having a chronological course and being measured with the micromechanical sensor structure to obtain measuring values, wherein the test structure being under the generated pressure change is subjected to a stress condition and wherein information on a reliability is obtained by comparing the measuring values of the micromechanical sensor structure before and after the exertion of the stress condition.