Silicon fusion bonding for pressure sensors

Two novel processes for fabricating silicon piezoresistive pressure sensors are presented. The chips described are used to demonstrate an important silicon/silicon bonding technique called silicon fusion bonding (SFB). Using this technique, single-crystal silicon wafers can be reliably bonded with near-perfect interfaces without the use of intermediate layers. Pressure transducers fabricated with SFB exhibit greatly improved performance over devices made with conventional processes. SFB is also applicable to many other microchemical structures.<>