Monocrystalline thin-film waferlevel encapsulation of microsystems using Porous Silicon

A new technology for thin-film MEMS encapsulation with a monocrystalline silicon membrane is presented. The thickness of the membrane, used here, is 36 μm. It is produced on a dedicated wafer using a further development of the “Advanced Porous Silicon Membrane (APSM)” Process. The membrane wafer is attached to a MEMS wafer by glass-frit bonding. Before and during bonding the membrane is mechanically connected to its substrate by vertical anchors. Finally, the substrate is detached by cracking these anchors. The new encapsulation technology enables a very low sensor height by a hermetically sealed monocrystalline MEMS-Cap while using standard wafer bonding equipment. Hence, a cost-efficient all-purpose thin-film encapsulation is presented. We demonstrate the new encapsulation technology by a capped pressure sensor.