| Peer-Reviewed

Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices

Received: 12 November 2019     Accepted: 5 December 2019     Published: 13 December 2019
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

Hermetic microcircuit packaging was the dominant method of protecting semiconductor devices in the 1960s and 1970s. After losing majority market sectors to plastic encapsulated microelectronics over the last a few decades, hermetic packaging remains the preferred method of protecting semiconductor devices for critical applications such as in military, space, and medical fields, where components and systems are required to serve for several decades. MEMS devices impose additional challenges to packaging by requiring specific internal cavity pressures to function properly or deliver the needed quality (Q) factors. In MEMS multichip modules, internal pressure requirement conflicts arise when different MEMS devices require different internal gases and pressures. The authors developed a closed-formed equation to model pressure changes of hermetic enclosures due to gas ingression. This article expands the authors mathematical model to calculate gas pressure of a MEMS multichip module package as well as those of MEMS devices inside the multichip module package. These equations are not only capable of calculating service lifetimes of MEMS devices and multi-chip modules but can also help develop MEMS device packaging strategies to extend the service life of MEMS multi-chip modules.

Published in Advances in Materials (Volume 8, Issue 4)
DOI 10.11648/j.am.20190804.17
Page(s) 176-182
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2019. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Gas Leak, Ingress, Egress, Hermetic Package, MEMS, MCM, Reliability

References
[1] T. K. Tang, R. C. Gutierrez, C. B. Stell, V. Vorperian, G. A. Arakaki, J. T. Rice, W. J. Li, I. Chakraborty, K. Shcheglov and J. Z. Wilcox, "A PACKAGED SILICON MEMS VIBRATORY GYROSCOPE FOR MICROSPACECRAFT," in Proceedings IEEE The Tenth Annual International Workshop on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems., Nagoya, Japan, 1997.
[2] G. M. Rebiez and J. B. Muldavin, "RF MEMS Switches and Switch Circuits," IEEE Microwave Magazine, no. December, pp. 59-71, 2001.
[3] S. Majumder, J. Lampen, R. Morrison and a. J. Maciel, "A Packaged, High-Lifetime Ohmic MEMS RF Switch," in IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, Philadelphia, PA, 2003.
[4] G. M. Rebeiz, G.-L. Tan and J. S. Hayden, "RF MEMS Phase Shifters," IEEE Microwave Magzine, no. June, pp. 78-81, 2002.
[5] M. Lutz, A. Partridge, P. Gupta, N. Buchan, E. Klaassen, J. McDonald and K. Petersen, "MEMS OSCILLATORS FOR HIGH VOLUME COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS," in TRANSDUCERS 2007 - 2007 International Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference, Lyon, France, 2007.
[6] D. XU, Y. WANG, B. XIONG and T. LI, "MEMS-based thermoelectric infrared sensors: A review," Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 557-566, 2017.
[7] Y. Jin, Z. F. Wang, P. C. Lim, D. Y. Pan, J. Wei and C. Wong, "MEMS Vacuum Packaging Technology and Applications," in Proceedings of the 5th Electronics Packaging Technology Conferenc, Singapore, Singapore, 2003.
[8] B. Lee, S. Seok and K. Chun, "A study on wafer level vacuum packaging," Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, no. 13, pp. 663-669, 2003.
[9] C. W. Warren III and K. Najafi, "GOLD-INDIUM TRANSIENT LIQUID PHASE (TLP) WAFER BONDING FOR MEMS VACUUM PACKAGING," in IEEE 21st International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, Wuhan, China, 2008.
[10] R. Gooch, T. Schimert, W. McCardel, B. Ritchey, D. Gilmour and W. Koziarz, "Wafer-level vacuum packaging for MEMS," Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 2295-2299, 1999.
[11] S.-H. Choa, "Reliability of MEMS packaging: vacuum maintenance and packaging induced stress," Microsystem Technologies, no. 11, p. 1187–1196, 2005.
[12] S.-H. Choa, "Reliability of vacuum packaged MEMS gyroscopes," Microelectronics Reliability, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 361-369, 2005.
[13] Z. Luo, D. Chen, J. Wang, Y. Li and J. Chen, "A High-Q Resonant Pressure Microsensor with Through-Glass Electrical Interconnections Based on Wafer-Level MEMS Vacuum Packaging," Sensors, vol. 14, no. 12, pp. 24244-24257, 2014.
[14] R. Ramesham and R. C. Kullberg, "Review of vacuum packaging and maintenance of MEMS and the use of getters therein," J. of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 031307-1 - 031307-9, 2009.
[15] D. Greywall, "Gas-damped micromechanical structure". USA Patent 5,786,927, 28 July 1998.
[16] D. S. Greywall, P. A. Busch and J. A. Walker, "Phenomenological model for gas-damping of micromechanical structures," Sensors and Actuators, vol. 72, pp. 49-70, 1999.
[17] L. Fang and A. L. Menk, "On Gas Ingression of Hermetic Packages," IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, vol. 9, no. 6, pp. 1038-1044, 2019.
[18] D. A. Howl and C. A. Mann, "The back-pressurising technique of leak-testing," Vacuum, vol. 15, pp. 347 - 352, 1965.
[19] H. Greenhouse, R. Lowry and B. Romenesko, "Gas Kinetics," in Hermeticity of Electronic Packages, Waltham, MA, Elsevier, 2012, p. 2.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Lu Fang, Lyle Alexander Menk. (2019). Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices. Advances in Materials, 8(4), 176-182. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.am.20190804.17

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Lu Fang; Lyle Alexander Menk. Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices. Adv. Mater. 2019, 8(4), 176-182. doi: 10.11648/j.am.20190804.17

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Lu Fang, Lyle Alexander Menk. Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices. Adv Mater. 2019;8(4):176-182. doi: 10.11648/j.am.20190804.17

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.am.20190804.17,
      author = {Lu Fang and Lyle Alexander Menk},
      title = {Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices},
      journal = {Advances in Materials},
      volume = {8},
      number = {4},
      pages = {176-182},
      doi = {10.11648/j.am.20190804.17},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.am.20190804.17},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.am.20190804.17},
      abstract = {Hermetic microcircuit packaging was the dominant method of protecting semiconductor devices in the 1960s and 1970s. After losing majority market sectors to plastic encapsulated microelectronics over the last a few decades, hermetic packaging remains the preferred method of protecting semiconductor devices for critical applications such as in military, space, and medical fields, where components and systems are required to serve for several decades. MEMS devices impose additional challenges to packaging by requiring specific internal cavity pressures to function properly or deliver the needed quality (Q) factors. In MEMS multichip modules, internal pressure requirement conflicts arise when different MEMS devices require different internal gases and pressures. The authors developed a closed-formed equation to model pressure changes of hermetic enclosures due to gas ingression. This article expands the authors mathematical model to calculate gas pressure of a MEMS multichip module package as well as those of MEMS devices inside the multichip module package. These equations are not only capable of calculating service lifetimes of MEMS devices and multi-chip modules but can also help develop MEMS device packaging strategies to extend the service life of MEMS multi-chip modules.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Gas Ingress and Egress of MEMS Multi-Chip Modules and MEMS Devices
    AU  - Lu Fang
    AU  - Lyle Alexander Menk
    Y1  - 2019/12/13
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.am.20190804.17
    DO  - 10.11648/j.am.20190804.17
    T2  - Advances in Materials
    JF  - Advances in Materials
    JO  - Advances in Materials
    SP  - 176
    EP  - 182
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2327-252X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.am.20190804.17
    AB  - Hermetic microcircuit packaging was the dominant method of protecting semiconductor devices in the 1960s and 1970s. After losing majority market sectors to plastic encapsulated microelectronics over the last a few decades, hermetic packaging remains the preferred method of protecting semiconductor devices for critical applications such as in military, space, and medical fields, where components and systems are required to serve for several decades. MEMS devices impose additional challenges to packaging by requiring specific internal cavity pressures to function properly or deliver the needed quality (Q) factors. In MEMS multichip modules, internal pressure requirement conflicts arise when different MEMS devices require different internal gases and pressures. The authors developed a closed-formed equation to model pressure changes of hermetic enclosures due to gas ingression. This article expands the authors mathematical model to calculate gas pressure of a MEMS multichip module package as well as those of MEMS devices inside the multichip module package. These equations are not only capable of calculating service lifetimes of MEMS devices and multi-chip modules but can also help develop MEMS device packaging strategies to extend the service life of MEMS multi-chip modules.
    VL  - 8
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Microsystems Integration, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, USA

  • Department of Microsystems Integration, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, USA

  • Sections