Glass-to-glass anodic bonding with standard IC technology thin films as intermediate layers

Glass-to-glass wafer bonding has recently attracted considerable interest. Especially for liquid manipulation applications and on-chip chemical analys is systems, all-glass sealed channels with integrated metal electrodes are very attractive. In this paper, we present a novel anodic bonding process i n which the temperature does not exceed 400 degrees C. This is a crucial re quirement if metal patterns are present on the wafers. A number of thin fil m materials available in most conventional IC processes deposited on the gl ass wafers have been tested as intermediate bonding layers. Successful bond ing is obtained for various layer combinations and an explanation of the bo nding mechanism is given. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserve d.