Category Archives: Packaging and Testing

(December 28, 2010) — The University of Michigan College of Engineering will present Packaging for MEMS March 31 to April 1, 2011, in Boston, MA. MEMS packaging is a significant part of product cost. This program highlights what to consider in developing application-specific packaging that will meet your goals for product performance, durability, and total cost.

Using the right MEMS packaging is critical for product sucess, point out the conference organizers. MEMS packaging is a significant part of product cost. This program highlights what to consider in developing application-specific packaging that will meet goals for product performance, durability, and total cost. Learn about extension of existing technology, exciting new technologies coming up, how to make MEMS packaging more specific to applications, and what’s going on in research. Examples of strengths and shortcomings of various packaging schemes are included.

The conference invites product design engineers and engineering managers of MEMS device manufacturers to attend, as well as engineers, managers, and system designers who use MEMS devices in their products.

This program is a joint presentation by U-M Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The Center for Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS), and The Center for Professional Development.

Register online at www.InterPro.engin.umich.edu

The Center for Wireless Integrated Micro Systems (WIMS) is a world leader in developing packaging technology for a variety of MEMS systems. For more information about WIMS including education, research highlights, patents, and publications, see www.wimserc.org

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(December 21, 2010 – Business Wire) — Micross Components, Inc. and SemiSouth Laboratories, Inc. announced a collaborative effort to expand SemiSouth’s line of Silicon Carbide (SiC) Power JFETs and Schottky Diodes. SemiSouth will provide select JFET and diode die to Micross for packaging and test in metal hermetic packages. Micross will then offer these value-added hermetically packaged versions to military, aerospace, and down-hole drilling markets.

Micross plans to offer screening of the JFETs and Schottky Diodes to military and space specifications such as MIL-PRF-19500 equivalent initially and eventually offering standard certified MIL-PRF-19500 products in the future. The initial Micross SiC product offering will include four 1200V and one 1700V JFETs with 125C continuous max drain current capability of 4 to 50 amps and low RDSon, and four 1200 volt Schottky diodes capable of 5 to 30 amps continuous forward current. Operating junction temperature range is -55°C to +200°C (TJ), with special screening up to 260°C upon request.

"This is a significant product addition to our Military & Aerospace products family that will better serve the Satellite customer with state-of-the-art SiC technology for high-power FETs & diodes. With our hermetic packaging offering, this also expands the product use for extreme temperatures seen in deep down hole drilling of up to 260°C," says Jeff Kendziorski, director of marketing and new product development, Micross Components.

"We are continuing to search for ways to sell our SiC power electronics products in to hi-rel and mil-aero customers, and are pleased to be working with a well-known high-reliability products vendor such as Micross," says SemiSouth Laboratories CTO and VP of business development, Jeff Casady.

Micross Components is a global provider of specialized products & services and distributed components for the electronics community. For more information, please visit www.microssaustin.com/siliconcarbide .

SemiSouth is a privately held semiconductor company with more than 20 U.S. patents in the emerging field of high-efficiency silicon-carbide power devices. More information can be obtained from its website, www.semisouth.com

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For more information on military & aerospace electronics, visit Military & Aerospace Electronics at http://www.militaryaerospace.com/index.html

For more information on oil drilling, visit Oil & Gas Journal at http://www.ogj.com/index.html

by Laura Peters, contributing editor

IEDM Previews:
How strain can protect devices from ESD
SEMATECH tipping III-V MOSFET, FinFET, and resistive RAM
TSMC anneal for gate-last HKMG process
Imec IEDM presentations to cover More than Moore, ITRS
When do TSV stresses affect device operation?
Multi-threshold-voltage flexibility in FDSOI
CMOS imager works from light to night
Carbon nanotube vias approach production densities
IBM Alliance simplifies pFET HKMG
IM Flash details 25nm NAND

October 22, 2010 – Traditional CMOS image sensors based on silicon are limited to imaging in the visible and near infrared (IR) spectrum. But for homeland security, automotive safety and other applications that rely on detection of the earth’s natural "night glow," extension into the short-wave IR (SWIR) band is needed.

Researchers from NoblePeak Vision Corp. (Wakefield, MA), will explain how they integrated a low-noise, high quantum-efficiency germanium (Ge) photodiode into a 10μm-pitch VGA-compatible CMOS sensor at the upcoming International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM, 12/6-8 in San Francisco, CA). The CMOS sensor absorbs light from visible to 1.6μm, enabling high-resolution night imaging under moonless conditions. According to the research team, this is the first large-scale integration of single-crystal germanium (Ge) diodes into a silicon imager.

To date, one challenge in building quality Ge-on-Si diodes has been the high thermal budget associated with reducing Ge dislocation densities caused by the Ge/Si lattice mismatch of 4%. Using a high aspect (AR) ratio connection between the germanium and silicon, the NoblePeak process induces in-plane tension, which extends the absorption band edge of the germanium, helping the sensor to capture night glow at peaks of 1.3μm and 1.6μm. Based on a standard 0.18μm CMOS foundry flow, process details are shown in Figure 1. The team packaged the imagers with a thermoelectric cooler (-80°C) and incorporated them into a compact camera.

Figure 1. Ge diode integration flow. a) CMOS-to-contact formation; b) deposit Ge well dielectric, pattern Ge well and high AR Si seeding stem to form dual cavity; c) grow Si epi, CMP, form n and p regions in Ge by ion implant, deposit Ge interlayer dielectric; d) form Ge contact and stacked contact to CMOS, standard BEOL, microlens formation. (Source: NoblePeak)

Pixel quantum efficiency (QE) is defined as the electrons collected by the circuitry relative to photons incident on the pixel. The group found that QE was a function of fill factor and reflections in the dielectric stack, losses to the silicon substrate or dielectric, and quality of the metallization pattern. Packaged testing of devices revealed a pixel QE of 44% at 1.3μm at full VGA resolution and 32% at half resolution (Figure 2).

Diode dark current (i.e., leakage current) measured at wafer probe at -45°C was 25 fA/pixel. The team traced the primary leakage mechanism to traps within the space-charge region of the diode.

For SWIR imaging, an alternative is a room-temperature InGaAs SWIR sensor for military applications. However, this approach requires integration with a long-wavelength thermal sensor for full bandwidth coverage. Another image sensor option, which allows extension into the near-IR, involves copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS)-on-CMOS for automotive and security applications.

Figure 2. Pixel quantum efficiency and dark current. Wafer probe results show median pixel quantum efficiency and dark current of all pixels in each VGA imager measured at full and half-resolution. Optical power was 3μW/cm2. (Source: NoblePeak)


(August 23, 2010 – BUSINESS WIRE) — Sensonor Technologies will present a paper on a gyroscope with north-seeking capability at Symposium Gyro Technology, September 21, 2010. Sensonor Technologies is developing SAR500, a novel high-precision, low-noise, high-stability, calibrated and compensated digital oscillatory gyroscope with SPI interface housed in a custom-made ceramic package.

The SAR500 contains a Butterfly MEMS die and an analog ASIC, housed in a rigid custom-made ceramic package. An FPGA or a digital ASIC contains the needed control and functional algorithms to achieve the superior performance. The gyroscope device is factory-calibrated and compensated for temperature effects to provide high-accuracy digital output over a broad temperature range. Tuning of the excitation and detection frequencies, as well as mechanical and electrical balancing of the dual masses result in very low sensitivity to shock and vibrations.

The sensing element consists of two identical masses suspended by asymmetric springs to pedestals designed to minimize the mechanical and thermal stress. Feedback loops are used to control both the excitation and detection modes. Additional pairs of electrodes are used to tune the resonance frequency of the excitation and detection modes, and to actively compensate the quadrature offset of the gyroscope. By utilizing a unique sealed cavity technology, the vibrating masses are contained within the low-pressure hermetic environment needed for low damping and high Q factors. Further on, improved stability of the gyroscope is achieved by the choice of crystalline materials in the entire structure of the sensing element and of full design symmetry about the vertical axis.

The signal processing circuits consist of a full custom analog ASIC and a digital part which can be implemented in an FPGA or structured ASIC. The analog ASIC includes precision low noise charge amplifiers and 5th order delta-sigma ADCs, as well as voltage references and low pass filters for the feedback signals. The digital ASIC provides a stable, high-resolution implementation of the loop filters and delta-sigma DACs for excitation and detection feedback. It also performs low noise synchronous demodulation, and compensates for temperature drift of bias and scale factor. The gyro is configured as an SPI slave for efficient readout of angular rate as well as other data.

The gyro is designed to achieve an angular random walk of 0.004deg/sqr(hr), in-run bias stability of 0.02deg/hr and bias repeatability of 0.1deg/hr.

Sensonor provides high precision MEMS technology; designing and manufacturing advanced, integrated gyro and pressure sensors for harsh environments. Learn more at www.sensonor.com

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(August 19, 2010) — 16 papers with imec authors were accepted for IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), December 6-8, 2010, in San Francisco. Both ITRS-related as well as More-than-Moore-related research papers have been accepted, rewarding imec’s multidisciplinary R&D platform (featuring two state-of-the-art R&D fabs).

With 11 papers on ITRS scaling topics, imec will discuss a significant contribution to the fundamental understanding on the switching behavior and operation in advanced memory concepts (i.e. resistive RAM (RRAM) devices), among other topics. This has been achieved by applying imec’s longstanding expertise in logic MOS and high-k/metal gate reliability. It demonstrates the power of leveraging expertise from various domains in a flexible manner.

A 2nd highlight demonstrates imec’s continued progress on 3D-through-silicon via (TSV) technology, which is at the forefront of new and enabling ITRS technologies. The paper reports important characterization data of a two-die stacked device combining TSV with high-k/metal gate devices.

In addition, 5 More-than-Moore related topics will be presented at IEDM, covering GaN technology, Si high-voltage devices and MEMS technologies. One particular result is the realization of a high performance MEMS device together with one of our industrial core partners. Imec’s MEMS R&D expertise was applied to provide an industry-relevant solution.

Imec is committed to continue to lead in R&D of 300mm ITRS process technologies, but is also expanding its value offering in More-than-Moore leveraging its 200mm platform. Learn more at www.imec.be.

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entropic

Entropic announced it is working with NAGRA. Through this engagement, Entropic will embed NAGRA’s latest NAGRA-On-Chip Security (NOCS 3) conditional access and digital rights management technology into its complete line of advanced hybrid broadcast/IP set-top box (STB) system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions.

The NOCS 3 technology provides a unified and certified hardware root of trust by transferring key security functionality from the device to the SoC, which in turn gives Pay-TV operators the proper level of content protection required to maximize revenues by controlling access to premium content, both to secure revenues from subscribers and to protect content owners’ material from illegal copying and distribution. Additionally, by moving the security functionality to the SoC, the cost and complexity of developing secure STBs is significantly reduced, which enables device manufacturers to bring new STB products to market faster.

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memsic

MEMSIC, Inc. announced at CES 2014 the first of its kind connected watch SDK (MMW-SDK) with an integrated e-Compass. Its availability facilitates the rapid development of a wide range of wearable consumer electronic applications with connectivity to Apple and Android platforms.

The MMW-SDK takes advantage of the ultra low power and small size of the recently introduced MEMSIC MMC3416xPJ magnetometer, allowing developers to create innovative, always- on, wearable applications that enhance the user experience and utility of mobile handsets and tablets.  While using less than 50uA of current, the MMC3416xPJ can provide fast, highly accurate heading, rotation and attitude information which, combined with MEMSIC’s sensor fusion software, will enable applications to understand the context of the user, such as whether the user is standing, sitting, lying, walking or running, and can also assist in indoor navigation applications. The SDK also provides a wireless connection to another mobile device, further simplifying the development and integration process.

The MEMSIC electronic compass software provides a highly accurate fully tilt compensated electronic compass with calibration that supports MEMSIC’s recently introduced MMC3416xPJ ultra low noise, low power magnetometer in a 1.6 x 1.6 x 0.6 package.  High heading accuracy of the compass is enabled by the high performance and low noise of the MMC3416PJ. The MMW-SDK will be available in April 2014.

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February 20, 2009: EPCOS AG is introducing what the Munich-based company is calling the world’s most compact packaged sensors for barometric pressure measurement, and it comes with the firm’s chip-sized MEMS packaging.

With dimensions of only 1.7×1.7×0.9 mm2, the components are many times smaller than comparable competitor products and open up numerous applications for portable electronics, the company said in a news release.

A further advantage of the new sensors is the cost-effective CSMP (chip-sized MEMS package) packaging technology developed by EPCOS, the news release said.

EPCOS also offers a sensor variant in a conventional package with a gel-protected stainless steel pressure port. With a footprint of only 3×3 mm2 the ASB1200E SMD pressure sensor enables the further miniaturization of barometric applications that are exposed to high humidity, the company said.


Tiny barometric pressure sensors open up numerous portable electronics applications, EPCOS says. (Photo courtesy of EPCOS AG)

AlSiC hermetic packaging assemblies from CPS Technologies offer an alternative to traditional thermal management hermetic packaging materials such as CuMo and CuW. The combinations of lightweight, high thermal conductivity, CTE matching, and low cost make it appropriate for applications in which thermal management and/or weight are important.

Unlike CuMo and CuW, which require machining for all but the simplest shapes, many AlSiC designs are cast to the final shape, requiring no secondary machining. The net-shape casting capability reportedly enables the direct creation of functional design features, such as pockets for circulators as well as cavities or pedestals for die.

These hermetic packages will typically be in the form of an AlSiC base or heatsink brazed to a conventional alloy seal ring or hermetic package. The frame includes a matched glass seal to the ASTM F-15 (Kovar) pins. The entire package is hermetic to better than 10-9 atm-cm3/s, and is RoHS compliant. CPS Technologies Norton, MA; www.alsic.com

September 10, 2008: Centipede Systems, an emerging supplier of advanced connectors for electronics, announced that Silicon Microstructures Inc. (SMI), has ordered a Centipede Systems tester to speed micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and improve quality at its Milpitas, CA fabrication facility.

SMI, a member of the ELMOS Group, is an ISO 9001 and ISO/TS 16949-certified developer and manufacturer of MEMS-based pressure sensors used in critical automotive, medical and industrial applications, from tire pressure sensing to medical respiration monitoring.

Centipede says the machine will offer SMI a number of benefits including streamlining MEMS test methodologies and enabling faster device characterization. “The Centipede system will enable rapid thermal cycling from -65°C to +160°C,” said Thomas Di Stefano, Centipede founder and president. “Additionally, this new system offers MEMS developers economies-of-scale that have not been achieved in earlier test systems.”


The Centipede Systems MEMS tester can be customized for all levels of productivity from manual to fully automatic.

In the future, the Centipede MEMS tester will be configured to allow for fully automated production test with automatic load and unload via test-in-tray or strip test.

“We expect the Centipede Thermal Forcing Unit to enable us to test parts rapidly through extremes of temperature cycling, saving valuable time and extending the temperature test range,” said Dr. Nicole Kerness, Silicon Microstructures’ VP of product engineering.