Damage free dicing method for MEMS devices

A damage free dicing method for MEMS devices has been researched in this paper. The method is based on the bonding and detachment of a glass plate cap by using a thermoplastic adhesive. The sand blast technique was used for fabrication of the glass cap wafer, which has concavities with depth of 100 /spl mu/m. The thermoplastic adhesive (STAYSTIK373, Techno Alpha Co. Ltd.) was screen printed on the glass cap wafer. The glass cap wafer was thermocompression-bonded to silicon wafer at 210/spl deg/C and diced to individual chips. The glass cap plate was easily detached at 300/spl deg/C. This method prevented MEMS devices from suffering contamination by water or dicing dust during the dicing process. The method is easily applied to current mass-production processes, because the method is accomplished with inexpensive materials and well-established equipment. The process conditions and examples have been explained in the paper.