Microelectromechanical component with a metal standoff
AssigneeMurata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
InventorsMarcus RINKIÖ, Noora TUOMISTO, Sareh SALARI, Anssi BLOMQVIST
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A microelectromechanical component is provided with a metal standoff and a method of manufacturing the same. The metal standoff provides an accurate control of the MEMS gap height during the eutectic bonding of the component as well as mechanical stress reduction of the electrical contact.
Claims16
A microelectromechanical component comprising:
- a cap wafer having a top surface and a bottom surface, the top surface defining a horizontal xy-plane and a vertical z-direction that is perpendicular to the xy-plane;
- a structure wafer that has a top surface and a bottom surface, the structure wafer being bonded to the cap wafer so that the cap wafer and the structure wafer are aligned with each other in the z-direction;
- an electrical connection in a gap-control region, the electrical connection comprising a metal layer that extends in the z-direction from the bottom surface of the cap wafer to the top surface of the structure wafer;
- and
- one or more metal standoffs at the bottom surface of the cap wafer in the gap-control region,
- wherein the one or more metal standoffs are adjacent to the electrical connection and extend in the z-direction from the bottom surface of the cap wafer to the top surface of the structure wafer, and
- wherein the one or more metal standoffs comprise a metal having a compressive strength that is greater than a compressive strength of the metal layer in the electrical connection.
A method for manufacturing a microelectromechanical component with a metal standoff, the microelectromechanical component including a cap wafer having a bottom surface and a top surface that defines a horizontal xy-plane and a vertical z-direction that is perpendicular to the xy-plane, a cap wafer gap-control region in the cap wafer, and a structure wafer having a top surface and a bottom surface, the structure wafer comprising a structure wafer gap-control region, the method comprising:
- forming one or more metal standoffs at the bottom surface of the cap wafer in the cap wafer gap-control region;
- forming a metal layer on the bottom surface of the cap wafer in the cap wafer gap-control region so that the metal layer is adjacent to the one or more metal standoffs;
- placing the cap wafer on top of the structure wafer so that the cap wafer gap-control region is aligned with the structure wafer gap-control region in the z-direction;
- and
- bonding the cap wafer to the structure wafer so that the metal layer extends in the z-direction from the bottom surface of the cap wafer to the top surface of the structure wafer and the one or more metal standoffs extend in the z-direction from the bottom surface of the cap wafer to the top surface of the structure wafer,
- wherein a compressive strength of the metal forming the one or more metal standoffs is greater than a compressive strength of the metal layer in the electrical connection.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.