Delphi Technologies, Inc.

Hughes Electronics Corporation

Delco Electronics Corporation

Ruth Ellen Beni

Larry Lee Jordan

Douglas Ray Sparks

Shing Yeh

Anthony Alan Duffer

Harold M Olsen

Leslie A Momoda

A method by which semiconductor wafers (10, 12) can be solder bonded to form a semiconductor device, such as a sensor with a micromachined structure (14). The method entails forming a solderable ring (18) on the mating surface of a device wafer (10), such that the solderable ring (18) circumscribes the micromachine (14) on the wafer (10). A solderable layer (20, 26, 28) is formed on a capping wafer (12), such that at least the mating surface (24) of the capping wafer (12) is entirely covered by the solderable layer (20, 26, 28). The solderable layer (20, 26, 28) can be formed by etching the mating surface (24) of the capping wafer (12) to form a recess (16) circumscribed by the mating surface (24), and then forming the solderable layer (26) to cover the mating surface (24) and the recess (16) of the capping wafer (12). Alternatively, the solderable layer (28) can be formed by depositing a solderable material to cover the entire lower surface of the capping wafer (12), patterning the resulting solderable layer (28) to form an etch mask on the capping wafer (12), and then to form the recess (16), such that the solderable layer (28) covers the mating surface (24) but not the surfaces of the recess (16).

Process for bonding micromachined wafers using solder

A method of bonding two electrically conductive substrates together includes the steps of forming a dielectric layer between the substrates, with the layer being formed from a sol-gel solution. Through the application of a constant voltage an ionic depletion region is created in the dielectric layer. After the step of creating the ionic depletion region, the dielectric layer and substrates are heated such that an oxygen depletion region is created in one of the substrates. The sol-gel solution includes sodium aluminoborosilicate having about 75-90 mol % SiO.sub.2, about 5-20 mol % B.sub.2 O.sub.3, about 1-10 mol % Na.sub.2 O and about 0-5 mol % Al.sub.2 O.sub.3.

Sol-gel bonding solution for anodic bonding

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Carmel, IN, United States of America

Ruth Ellen Beni