Strength and leak testing of plasma activated bonded interfaces

Bond strength and hermeticity of plasma activated bonded (PAB) Si-Si interfaces are reported. Bonding of 100 mm Si(1 0 0) wafers was performed. An average bond strength of 9.0+/-3.9 MPa was achieved without performing any annealing steps. Cavities bonded in vacuum were found to be hermetic based on detection of changes in membrane deflections. The detection limit for leak was 8E-13 mbar l/s. For comparison, strength and leak tests were also performed with regular fusion bonded wafers annealed at 1100 degreesC. The PAB was found to withstand post-processing steps such as RCA cleaning, 24 h in de-ionised water (DIW), 24 h in 2.5% HF, 24 h in acetone and 60 s in a resist developer. By analysing the thin silicon oxide present on the surfaces to be bonded with optical methods, the influence of pre-cleaning and activation process parameters was investigated.