Process for making microstructures and microstructures made thereby
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsLiwei Lin, Yu-Ting Cheng, Khalil Najafi, Kensall D. Wise
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for making a microstructure assembly, the method including the steps of providing a first substrate and a second substrate; depositing an electrically conductive material on the second substrate; contacting the second substrate carrying the electrically conductive material with the first substrate; and then supplying current to the electrically conductive material to locally elevate the temperature of said electrically conductive material and cause formation of a bond between the first substrate and the second substrate.
Claims23
A method for making a microstructure assembly, the method comprising the steps of:
- (i) providing a first substrate and a second substrate;
- (ii) depositing an electrically conductive material on the second substrate along a peripheral boundary line path of a predetermined area;
- (iii) contacting the second substrate carrying the electrically conductive material along the peripheral boundary line path with the first substrate to define a Predetermined volume therebetween;
- and then
- (iv) supplying current to the electrically conductive material to elevate the temperature of said electrically conductive material locally along the peripheral boundary line path and cause formation of a localized high-temperature bond between the first substrate and the second substrate to enclose the predetermined volume therebetween.
A method for simultaneously micropackaging a plurality of microdevices, the method comprising the steps of:
- fabricating a plurality of microdevices on a first substrate wafer such that the microdevices are arranged in a first array;
- fabricating a corresponding plurality of micropackages on a second substrate wafer such that the micropackages are arranged in a second array which is aligned to match the first array, the micropackages having a predetermined peripheral boundary line area defining an opening into an aperture of a predetermined volume;
- fabricating an array of microheaters on the micropackages of the second array along the predetermined peripheral boundary line area;
- fabricating electrically conductive interconnection lines between the microheaters;
- moving the first substrate and the second substrate toward each other until the array of micropackages comes into biased contact with the first substrate along an interface region, such that each microdevice in the first array is covered by one of the micropackages, and such that the array of microheaters is interposed at the interface region along the predetermined peripheral boundary line area between the first array of devices and the second array of micropackages;
- and
- applying electrical current through the interconnection lines to thermally activate the microheaters for localized high-temperature bonding and hermetically sealing the micropackages to the first substrate to thereby encapsulate and protect the devices on the first substrate.
A method for making a microstructure assembly comprising the steps of:
- depositing an electrically conductive microheater material on one of a first substrate and a second substrate in a predetermined peripheral bonding area;
- contacting one of the substrates with the other substrate along the predetermined peripheral bonding area to define a predetermined volume therebetween;
- and
- resistive heat bonding the substrates to one another along the predetermined peripheral bonding area in response to applying current to the electrically conductive microheater material to form a localized high-temperature bond between the substrates and encapsulate the predetermined volume therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.