Micralyne Wafer Level Packaging Design Kit Cuts Costs and Speeds Industrial MEMS Production

Micralyne Inc.’s new MicraSilQ™ fabrication Design Kit cuts costs and speeds product introduction for industrial customers supplying and developing advanced inertial sensors. MicraSilQ™ offers an established fabrication process built for reliable operation and value, and eliminates costly discrete packaging.

MicraSilQ™ is ideal for the development and supply of complex micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) focused on vibration, motion, rotation and shock detection. It enables MEMS design professionals to create functionally robust and reliable devices utilizing a well-established process flow with design rules. MicraSilQ™ supports the production of high volume accelerometer and gyro fabrication in an all-in-one solution integrating wafer level fabrication, hermetic packaging and through-silicon-via (TSV) architecture.

“For a MEMS architect, designing into a mature process platform with established design rules is the fastest path to a functional device with desired performance,” commented Alex Edwards, vice president of CMC Microsystems. “The MicraSilQ inertial MEMS platform provides a component that is ready for flip-chip integration, by providing through-silicon-vias, hermetic wafer level packaging, and ball grid array attachment.”

For high attachment reliability, the microchip package is completed with lead-free solder with specially-designed under-bump metallization. The standard 60 micron device layer allows for the large capacitive comb finger overlap area widely used in inertial sensor designs. Custom device layer thicknesses greater or less than 60 microns are also available.

MicraSilQ™ moves new sensors from prototype to market with optimum performance, device reliability and speed. “MicraSilQ™ dramatically lowers costs by eliminating the need for external ceramic housing, wirebonds and hermetic sealing on a discrete basis,” explained Collin Twanow, Micralyne’s Vice President of Engineering. “Deposited getter material in the capping wafer provides exceptional Q-factor and long term stability.”