Mechanical and electrical bonding between silicon wafer and glass wafer with etched channels containing metal tracks

In this paper a novel process to bond and, at the same time, to electrically connect a silicon wafer to a glass wafer is presented. It consists of a low temperature anodic bonding process between silicon and glass by using a glass wafer with etched channels in order to contain metal tracks. The glass-to-silicon anodic bonding process at low temperatures (not exceeding 300°C) assures a strong mechanical link (Berthold et al. in Transducers 1999, June:7–10, 1999). The electrical contacts between the metal pads on the backside of a silicon wafer and the metal pads on the glass wafer are achieved by sintering and diffusion of metals due to a kind of thermo compression bonding. This bonding method permits a high vertical control due to a well-controlled etching of the cavity depth and to the thickness precision of both metallization (pads on silicon wafers and metal tracks on glass wafer). This IC-processing compatible approach opens up the way to a new electrical connection concept keeping, at the same time, a strong mechanical bond between glass and silicon wafers for an easier fabrication of a more complex micro-system.