Established in 1992, Applied Microengineering Ltd are based at Harwell Campus, Oxford in the UK. AML designs and manufactures Wafer Bonding systems with in-situ alignment capabilities.
The AWB systems offer outstanding flexibility, enabling a wide range of bonding techniques to be carried out and are ideally-suited to process development. With a worldwide customer base, AWB systems are used for both R&D and commercial production of devices using wafer sizes up to 8”.
The systems feature an integral, optical wafer-to-wafer alignment system as standard, with the capability of 1µm accuracy. All bonding process steps can be carried out sequentially within the bonding chamber, without exposure to air between stages:
- Wafers are held in separation, up to 30mm apart
- operation under vacuum or controlled atmosphere
- independent heating of upper/lower wafers, up to 560°C
- in-situ radical-activation or chemical treatment of bonding surfaces
- in-situ alignment, immediately prior to bonding
- bonding, with contact forces up to 40kN
The systems offer auto-align and bonding facilities via user-programmed recipes, and are readily configured to meet customer requirements.
Bonding techniques: Anodic, Direct (both high and low temperature), Eutectic, Thermocompression, Adhesive (thermal cure and UV cure), Solder, SLID (Solid-Liquid interdiffusion), Glass Frit, custom bonding techniques.
Live, in-situ wafer-to-wafer alignment: Wafers are aligned using visible or IR illumination, to 1µm accuracy, immediately prior to contact and bonding. The live view provides visual confirmation and allows last-minute corrections, ensuring post-bond accuracy.
Alignment can be carried out at any desired temperature, eliminating inaccuracies due to thermal expansion and mismatch between wafers.
Alignment can be performed manually or automatically.
Live View of Bond Formation: The ability to observe bond formation in real time is an important advantage for process development. The visual information available during bonding means that process parameters such as temperature and force can be adjusted as required. This feature can significantly reduce process development time and is particularly useful for interlayer bonding with adhesives, glass frit or metals.