Patent ID: 7815480

Claim:
A packaging method comprising: (A) providing a first substrate, a second substrate, a wall that separates the first and second substrates, and at least one temperature sensitive element that is disposed between the first and second substrates, said wall comprising a sintered glass frit having a melting temperature T frit-melt and said at least one temperature sensitive element having a degradation temperature T degrade , said wall being bonded to said first substrate and in contact with said second substrate; (B) impinging a laser beam having a diameter D beam on the wall; and (C) traversing the beam along a length of the wall at a speed S to heat the wall and seal at least a portion of the width of the wall to the second substrate; wherein: (i) the minimum distance between an edge of the at least one temperature sensitive element and an edge of the portion of the wall sealed to the second substrate at any location along the wall is L min ; (ii) the minimum width of the portion of the wall sealed to the second substrate at any location along the wall is W seal-min ; and (iii) D beam , L min , W seal-min , T frit-melt , T degrade , and S satisfy the relationships: W seal-min ≧2 mm, (a) D beam >W seal-min , (b) S≧ (11 mm/sec)·( D beam /2 mm)·(0.2 mm/ L min )·(65° C./ T degrade ) 2 , (c) and S≦ (130 mm/sec)·( D beam /2 mm)·(450° C./ T frit-melt ) 2 . (d)