Al‐Si3N4 couples were heat‐treated at 850‐1150°C for 250 hours. The thickness of the interacted area was measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning/transmission electron microscopy (TEM/STEM). The interaction rate increases exponentially with inverse temperature, with an activation energy of 194.23 kJ/mol and diffusion pre‐coefficient of 5 × 10−9 m2/s, indicating that the interaction is diffusion‐dependent. As the results showed, the interfacial area is comprised of Al alloy channels, Si precipitates, and AlN grains. Al‐Si transfer through the solid solution (Si3‐xAlxN4‐y) at the interface of Al alloy and β‐Si3N4 grains controls the kinetic of the interaction. When concentration of Al in solid solution exceeds a certain amount, it undergoes a topotactic phase transformation to form Al1‐xSixN1+y (viz., AlN). Next, the Al1‐xSixN1+y grains detach from the β‐Si3N4 grains and subsequently new Al‐Si3N4 interfaces are established. These interfaces repeat the interaction process, continuing until all the reactant is depleted. Thus, the interaction kinetics consist of a sequence of associated parabolic stages, precluding the observation of parabolic kinetics.
Many MEMS and MOEMS devices require hermetic packaging with preferably no postprocessing after the MEMS device's releasing. Wafer-level Solid-Liquid Interdiffusion (SLID) bonding can provide simultaneous hermetic packaging and better electrical interconnects. Moreover, employing a physically deposited contact metallization on the device wafer instead of chemically deposited layers (such as electrochemical Cu) is of utmost importance as far as reducing the complexity of the MEMS/MOEMS packaging process integration is concerned. The current work studied the possibility of utilizing Co as a contact metallization layer for the low-temperature Cu-Sn-Inbased SLID bonding. In order to guarantee the long-term reliability of the devices, a fundamental understanding of the formation and evolution of interconnection microstructures and mechanical characterization of the joint is of utmost importance. In this work, Cu-Sn-In electroplated Si chips were bonded to Co substrates at a temperature range 160-250°C. During the bonding process, a single intermetallic compound (IMC) (Cu,Co)6(Sn,In)5 formed at the bonding area, with no detectable Cu3Sn phase that causes voids formation. The Young's modulus and hardness of (Cu,Co)6(Sn,In)5 and Cu6Sn5, as a reference, were measured as 124.8±0.5 and 6.2±0.5, 114±1 and 6.7±0.5 MPa, respectively. Furthermore, the current study was able to produce a fully IMC joint of Cu-Sn-In/Co SLID system at 220°C for bonding time as short as 20 minutes.
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