Contents

3

Advanced Packaging - an important Cost and Success Factor for the Production of Microsystems

System Integration in Microsystem Technology - View-points of the German ZVEI on the Subject of Multifunc-tional Packages

Recent Advances in System Integration and MEMS Packaging

Field Configurable Assembly: Programmable Heteroge-neous Integration at the Mesoscale

Contactless Handling of Micro Parts

Optical Fibre Array Manufacture using ElectrostaticActuation

Adhesive Joints for MEMS using Hotmelts

High-Vacuum Wafer Bonding Technology

AP Plasma Activation for MEMS Wafer Direct Bonding

Advances in Aligned Wafer Bonding for 3D Interconnect

Back-End and Assembly Production of Cost Sensitive Microsystems

Micro- and Nanotechnologies for Advanced Packaging

Events / Short News

News from NEXUS Association and NEXUSPLUS

News from Europractice - Microsystems Service for Europe

News from NoE Patent-DfMM -Design for Micro & Nano Manufacture

News from Eurimus -Eureka Industrial Initiative for Microsystem Users

News from the German Programme Microsystems 2004 - 2009

News from MINAEAST-NET - Micro and Nanotechnologiesgoing to Eastern Europe through Networking

News from MNT-EraNet - a Network of European Micro-and Nanotechnology Support Programmes

EU Programme News

Panorama: Prof. H. Reichl's 60th Anniversary

Main Topic:

Assembly and Packaging

L. John (D)

K. Snoeckx et al (B)

A. O'Riordan, G. Redmond (Irl)

M. Franzkowiak et al (D)

D. Weiland, M. Desmulliez (UK)

S. Böhm et al (D)

W. Reinert (D)

M. Gabriel (D)

T. Matthias, P. Lindner (A)

C. Ossmann (CH)

K.-F. Becker (D)

B. Wybranski

P. Salomon

P. Salomon

P. Salomon

E. Arbet

W. Ehret

D. Dascalu

P. Hahn

M. Kreibich

6

8

10

13

15

17

34

36

38

39

40

41

18

21

23

26

27

28

33

31

30

46

mstnews 2/05 on “Smart Textiles”in April 2005

Overview about microtechnologies for smart textilesand applications of smart textiles.

Deadline for press releases, short news, event announcements and advertisement orders: Mar 07, 2005

Date of distribution: April 01, 2005

Look ahead to the next issue:

Further Sponsors and Advertisers

Editorial

Publisher:VDI/VDE - Innovation + Technik GmbH(VDI/VDE-IT)Rheinstraße 10 B, 14513 Teltow, Germany

mstnews is published 6 times a year in February, April, June, August, October andDecember.

mstnews comprises newsletter pages fromseveral European Networks (Nexus, Euro-practice, Eurimus, Patent-DfMM) and theGerman Microsystems Frame Programme.

Managing Editor / mstnews Office:Bernhard Wybranski, VDI/VDE-ITRheinstraße 10 B, 14513 Teltow, GermanyPhone: +49 3328 435-167Fax: +49 3328 435-105E-mail: mstnews@vdivde-it.de

Editors:Alfons BotthofPatric Salomon Dr. Matthias WernerWiebke Ehret (German MST Programme News)Lutz John(Assembly and Packaging)

Assistant Editors: Annette Wittmann, Uwe Klädtke

Cover design:Isabelle Brämer

Setting:klahr.de

Advertising:We welcome sponsors and advertisers.Please visit www.mstnews.de to downloadour media data and advertising rates.

Subscriptions:Subscriptions are free of charge to qualifiedreaders in Europe. Readers from outside Europe and commer-cial resellers may order a subscription at anannual rate of 120.- Euro. Please make use of our on-line subscriptionservice at www.mstnews.de

Submission of Articles:Your submissions are appreciated. The maintopics of the future issues are listed on theleft, but other interesting articles that donot fit into this scheme are also welcome.Please send your abstract to the mstnewsoffice. Guidelines for authors are availableon www.mstnews.de

Announcements, New Products, Books,Studies, Company Information:mstnews publishes selected announce-ments, product and company news free ofcharge. Please send your news (100 to 200words preferred) to mstnews@vdivde-it.de.

Opinions expressed by the authors are notnecessarily those of mstnews.

Dear Readers,

The term "microsystem" addressestwo aspects: "micro" and "system". A system may be implemented with-out micro components or micro tech-nology at all, but a single micro com-ponent that is not embedded in atechnical system environment, or asingle micro technology not in linewith the whole process chain of aproduct production process, in mostcases doesn't make much sense. Themicrosystems industry knows that"system" in reality means an ap-proach considering the whole spec-trum of relevant micro materials, ma-chines and processes for manufactur-ing, handling, assembling, connectingand packaging as well as the complexnetwork of interdependencies be-tween all these items. As the com-plexity of the system solution increas-es, this network become more com-plex too, as in the case of hybrid con-cepts. "System" also means the taskof finding a solution or a conceptthat combines and integrates a selec-tion of the above-mentioned items inan optimal way and with the highestpossible synergy effects to fulfil thefinal goal in the easiest and mostcost-efficient way: To provide a new,innovative and - if possible - cheapproduct with higher functionality andperformance than those offered bycompetitors. This challenge is easily described withsome sentences as above, but more orless difficult to master in industrial re-ality. Its high complexity and the lackof engineering experiences, tools andtechnical preconditions, such as thematurity of the micro technologies,production processes and equipment,is a serious barrier to the (in particu-lar small and medium) enterprises formanaging the system integrationproblems and making full use of microsystems technologies. One technical field that is mandatoryfor successful system integration is

the system design at the initial stage.mstnews will dedicate its June issueto the topic of "Design for Manufac-turing", while manufacturing in-cludes in our view more than meremachining processes. It also includeshandling, assembly, testing, packag-ing and other production steps andtheir reliability! Assembling and packaging technolo-gies constitute another field that isessential for the success of system integration. Meanwhile this Februaryissue of mstnews will give you anoverview of different interesting de-velopments and current trends in thisfield. We hope it will be fruitful andstimulating to you on your way tonew microsystems solutions!

Bernhard Wybranski, chief editor

Main Topics of mstnews until 6/05 Deadline forIssue Main Topics abstracts

Apr. 05 Smart Textiles passedJun. 05 Design for Manufacturing Feb. 15, 2005Aug. 05 Energy Self-supplying Microsystems April 15, 2005Oct. 05 Technology Prgrammes and Initiatives June 15, 2005Dec. 05 Ambient Assited Living Aug. 15, 2005

3D stacking module in front of some "elderstuff" from the history of assembly and packag-ing technology. The module represents a certainstage of development of self-organizing Mi-crosystems with sensors, antenna, signal pro-cessing unit and energy supply (below the mod-ule), as implemented already at Fraunhofer IZM,Berlin

Further Sponsors and Advertisers

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

6

Packaging technology plays an im-portant part in the realization of mi-crosystems. With the developmentand design of an electronic layout ofa microsystem a solution must befound for its functional behaviourand also for optimal packaging, pos-sible production cost and potentialreliability.

Nowadays new ideas for products re-alized with highly integrated mi-crosystems have an edge over dis-cretely realized solutions in terms ofproduction costs. Innovative integra-tion technologies were used predom-inantly in products characterized bysmall size and high functionality aswell as large volumes to justify highcost.

With the increasing use of bare dicelikey flip chips and CSP and also ofhighly integrated circuits and ASICswith a high number of interconnec-tions mature technologies and mate-rials have become necessary to liveup to this trend. This makes it alsopossible to realize components, sen-sors, actuators and microsystemswith a high yield and lower cost.Therefore production cost is not sohigh any more in comparison with adiscrete solution.

The approach to use silicon technolo-

gy for complex monolithic integra-tion has been realized only in a fewcases of component setup, for in-stance pressure sensors, micro pumpsand coupler structures for opticalwaveguides. In view of a technologybase that differs too much, it is hardto combine different IC technologieson a single silicon wafer.

In contrast to the monolithic integra-tion path, the emphasis has beenplaced on technologies with a heterosystem integration aspect. Hetero in-tegration seems the right way for

Advanced Packaging - an important Cost and Success Factor for the Production of Microsystems

Lutz-Günter John

Our modern communication societycannot exist without a great manyinvisible electronic assistants. How-ever, we are still in the initial phaseof this development. In the near fu-ture new generations of microsys-tems with new integrated sensors,actuators and communication fea-tures concentrated in one function-al device will be implemented. Firstexamples are the new mobilephones with photo and camera andalso PDA function. With sufficientdisplay resolution and image defi-nition the new generation of per-sonal assistants can also connectvideo, movie and internet func-tions. Also GPS-based navigationsystems with map source and manyother on-demand functions will bepossible. These microsystems willnot only be linked with wireless lo-cal and global networks, but alsowith each other without the needfor a computer or data communica-tion centre. These developmentswill be based on a new generationof microsystems with embeddedcomplex sensor, actuator and com-munication functions. The realiza-tion of these microsystems will notbe feasible without technical ad-vance in the miniaturization of in-tegrated circuits.

Figure 1: Hetero Integration roadmap on organic substrate level; (source: FhG-IZM, Berlin)

Figure 2: Hetero Integration roadmap on wafer level ; (source: FhG-IZM, Berlin)

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

good performance, lower cost andhigh reliability for the production ofmicrosystems in any case. Therefore agreat variety of packaging technolo-gies was developed in close intercon-nection with new materials. Besidethe IC-driven concepts of system inte-gration like System on Chip (SoC),concepts such as System in Package(SiP) and System on Package (SoP)have lately won increasing accep-tance. In these technologies morethan one integrated circuit may becombined on one layer with passive

components and also with severalsensors and actuators. The advan-tages of these conceptions for mi-crosystems are multifunctionality,high miniaturization and lower cost. In addition to these conceptions forsystem integration, well-known tech-nologies have also become of morepractical importance for the produc-tion of microsystems. For instanceflexible organic substrates allow therealization of very compact and func-tional microsystems with the focus ofa freely designed ergonomic andfunctional body. Otherwise their be-haviour is good in terms of tempera-ture and shock stress. 3D-MID tech-nologies are increasingly being usedbecause they show good system per-formance in their volume aspect.

From the existing technology trendsin the field of packaging conceptionsthe following mainstreams for thedevelopment and production of mi-crosystems may be deduced.

2D- and 3D- integration - Technologies for embedded

passive and active components(e.g. chip in polymer)

- Integration of MEMS, antennas,RF filters, switches and res-onators

- Research and usage of func-tional layers

- Realization of optical intercon-nects in normal FR4 substratesor any other organic materialand the realization of opticalchip-to-chip connections

- Technologies for chip-on-waferpackaging

- Via technologies for 3D-inte-gration

- Research and use of nano- andbiostructures

- Design tools for 2D- und 3D-in-tegration

Housing technologies for the inte-gration of electronic, mechanical,optical, fluidic and other compo-nents Developments of packaging tech-nologies for microsystems forharsh environments - Packaging for high-tempera-

ture applications (> 125°C) und

Figure 3: 3D stacking technology for self-orga-nizing microsystems; (source: FhG-IZM, Berlin)

Advertisement

high-power solutions- Packaging for bio-compatible

materials for applications in thehuman body

- Use of alternative materials likepaper and textiles

- Development and use of poly-mer materials for new concep-tions of chipper microsystems

Development of "green" packag-ing methods likely the use of lead-free solder and also the use of re-cyclable materials and techniques Development and use of newnano materials and nano tech-niques and components

Support of new technologies withhigh productivity and low prepa-ration costs, e. g. reel-to-reel con-ception Micro-Nano Integration - Packaging for interconnection

from the nano world to thenormal macro world via mi-crosystems

- Development of devices andcomponents for the packagingof nano/microsystems (e.g. con-nectors, sensors, actuators, en-ergy sources)

Research and development of newtechnologies like self-assembly oraddressing and transport of nanocomponents Development of micro energysources for the realization of au-tonomous energy microsystems

Figure 1 shows the roadmap of het-ero integration based on organicsubstrates and Figure 2 another sili-con wafer based variant.Both development trends lead to thesame vision: highly integrated 3Dcomponents with integrated sensors,actuators and power supply.

Apart from the work on the packag-ing and interconnection technologyof these 3D packages, an equally in-tensive effort is being made to set upan autonomously organized commu-nication network with so-called e-grains that are being developed atthe Fraunhofer Institute of Reliabilityand Microintegration in Berlin (FhG-IZM). Figure 3 gives an idea of thesize of 3D stacking modules com-pared with a one-cent piece.

In future packaging conceptions forsystem integration cannot be devel-oped in isolation. The microsystemsas part of our living world will be-come more and more important.Consumers through their acceptanceand buying behaviour decide on thesuccess of the level of integration atmicrosystems. Therefore the human-device interface has also become ofgreat importance.

Contact: Lutz-Günter JohnVDI/VDE-IT, GermanyE-Mail: john@vdivde-it.de

8

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

Question: Dr. Burmeister, in the lastfew months the Microsystems Tech-nology Group of the German Associa-tion of Electronic Components andSystems (ZVEI) has been conductingan in-depth debate on the subject ofpackaging and interconnection tech-nology for microsensors and mi-crosystems. What do you think arethe current trends in packaging andinterconnection technologies of mi-crosensors?Answer: Two trends can be observedin this area. On the one hand, increas-ing use is being made of standardpackages of the semiconductor indus-try in applications with large-scalemanufacture as, for example, in auto-mobile sensorics or in the consumersector, while others, above all newmarkets for microsystems technology,require customized solutions with re-duced numbers of pieces. That meansthat the number of variants in thefield of sensorics is rising while piece

numbers per variant are decreasing.Annual piece numbers of 100 millionand more, as is customary for stan-dard components, are limited to fewapplications for sensorics products.Therefore, the package has to beadapted to the prevailing marginalconditions for different applicationsof one and the same sensor chip. Themanufacture of packages that havefar higher piece numbers per productin the standard range is thus pushedinto the sector of customized solu-tion. In order to translate concepts in-to practice, wafer manufacturers haveto rely on external engineering andproduction support. The consequenceis the market entry of application-spe-cific and multi-variant package solu-tions.

Q: Low volume production often en-tail high costs. May new mountingand connecting technologies alsohelp to produce marketable products

in case of lower piece numbers, too,and which important applications doyou think multifunctional packagesmay have?A: With standardization pressure de-creasing, packages are more andmore assuming specialized functionsthat the outer housing originally had,e.g. contacting with a network,screening from external influence oraccess to media like liquids, gases, etc.The package thus enables customer-specific formation of variants that wasoriginally achieved with ASICs. Thestandardized chip is employed in vari-ous applications with different andmultifunctional packages. 3D multi-functional packages also offer moreoptimization potential inthe systemcontext. As an example, the combina-tion of the housing function with thepackage can make sensors smallerand lighter. The number of connec-tion interfaces will decrease and theachievable reliability thereby increase.

System Integration in Microsystem Technology - Viewpoints ofthe German ZVEI on the Subject of Multifunctional PackagesInterview with Dr. Michael Burmeister, Managing Director Harting Mitronics AG

Figure 4 System in Package for consumer appli-cations

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

9

This, again, are a good approaches formarketable products.Multifunctional packages are primari-ly suited to meet application-specificrequirements. Automobile sensorics,industrial sensorics and medical appli-cations in the field of diagnostics arethe most important application fields.All three fields stand out for consider-able growth dynamics, with medicalapplications developing the highestdynamics in view of a multitude ofnew functions. Apart from these "tra-ditional" sectors, the setup of sen-sorics networks is seen as another im-portant application field for multi-functional packages. From our view-point sensor networks will penetrateinto all walks of life in future. In thisway it will be possible for example tomonitor bridges, buildings or forestareas by registering and transferringdata such as temperature, humidity,vibrations or chemical processes. However, these applications can onlybe developed if miniaturization is ac-companied by marketable cost. It istherefore necessary to press aheadwith the integration of heteroge-neous components (e.g. sensors, an-tennas, processors, etc.) on the waferlevel. This will give rise to System-in-Package (SiP) solutions in conjunctionwith innovative housing technologieslike the MID technology. The currentgrowth rates of SiP and MID tech-nologies of over 40% show that thisway holds out great promise.

Q: Dr. Burmeister, let me come backto this point again. Realizing mi-crosystems requires coming to gripswith a great variety of technologies.Would SMEs be able to benefit fromthese new developments at all?A: Of course they would. Microsys-tems technology is an area whereGermany is one of the world leaders,not least on account of the commit-ment of its SMEs. Nonetheless, theavailability of the technology on thelevel of SMEs may and must be im-proved. This is especially true becausethis point is a key element in increas-ing value added, thereby strengthen-ing leadership in this area in Germanyand Europe.On a technical level the networkingof results achieved constitutes a majorpotential for opening up new fieldsof competence for SMEs. The subjectof "multifunctional packages" mayparticularly profit from pooling and

developing existing technologies.Here a new field has come into beingwhich stands out for a great multiplic-ity of potential applications. Thisholds many opportunities, especiallyfor SMEs, but at the same time makesgreat demands on the availability ofnew materials as well as packagingtechnologies. As an example, enhancing standard-ized solutions for specific applicationsis a pivotal element for market devel-opment. The results will be twofold:On the one hand, a technology proof

will be able to overcome barriers toentry and, on the other hand, tech-nologies may also become applicablefor SMEs that are unable to pre-fi-nance a technology proof of theirown on cost grounds.

Q: You have just mentioned the fi-nancing aspect. May companies makethis effort on their own or do youthink the government should alsomake a contribution?A: We believe that assistance from thegovernment will have a special role to

Advertisement

10

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

The severe pressure on scaling ofelectronic devices has literally liftedthe industry to a higher dimension.Stacking of dies and components in

Recent Advances in System Integration and MEMSPackagingKoen Snoeckx, Kris Baert, Chris Van Hoof and Eric Beyne

Interesting times lie ahead in thedomain of 3D packaged applica-tions. Continuous scaling and therise of new technologies, such asMEMS, create a range of opportu-nities for applications that seemedhardly imaginable only a decadeago. For example the medical in-dustry finds great interest in highlyminiaturized sensors. But also thedigital imaging industry makes themost of the latest developments inthe microsystems technology do-main. What follows is an overviewof some important research issuesand breakthrough technologiesthat bring these promising applica-tions closer to reality.

Figure 1: Integrated 3D SiP sensor platform (bottom right of the board) in an EEG/ECG module. Indi-cated analog electronics are now processed as a single chip (inset)]

play. We should not forget that with-in the framework of R&D projectssupported by the government knowl-edge and technological know-howhas been and is still being acquired ona grand scale that is still awaitingpractical application. The impact willbe broad-based if assistance is espe-cially provided to SMEs in their devel-opment and application of multifunc-tional packages. If they succeed indemonstrating successful applications,inhibitions on the side of users will bereduced. It is important not to confine our-selves to solely putting up demonstra-tors. Only qualified samples may beconsidered as proof of a technology.Application-wise, the point is to focuson high-sales applications with aclearly recognizable interest for prac-tical application on the part of thepartners involved. It is only consistentthat those who possess knowledgemust be asked and obliged to convertthis into value added. The financial in-centive to market technologies on abroad scale must be made a fiscal in-strument of the policy of granting fi-nancial assistance. This is the only wayto achieve the original objective:translating innovations into jobs.

Q: One last question: Has ZVEI al-ready worked out concrete proposalfor R&D priorities? A: The debate has certainly not endedyet, but is possible to point out somepriorities already now which are cru-cial for the development of multifunc-tional packages:

Processing and integration tech-nologies on the wafer level as basetechnologies for future integratedsensor systems (e.g. Inter Chip ViaTechnology or sputtering technolo-gies...);Packaging materials made of ther-moplastics like LCP and PA, etc.;Micro 3D circuit carriers that maybe produced by laser techniques,injection moulding and premouldtechnology;Packaging and interconnectiontechnologies on 3D substrates suchas Wafer Bonding, Thin Chip Inte-gration, Flip Chip, adhesive bond-ing technologies and plasticbumps;Packaging concepts with media ac-cess, viz. mechanical connection ofchip to exterior world (nozzles,channels, lenses, filters, etc.);Combinations based on connectorand strip conductor technologies;

Antenna technologies in 3D hous-ings;Packaging technologies for high-temperature applications;Combinations based on mechanicalmounting technologies with theassembling of electronics compo-nents;Testing equipment for the produc-tion of new components.

Given the complexity of Multifunc-tional Packages and the interactionbetween individual components andtechnologies, it seems to be sensibleto base developments on applicationsand to link government assistancewith model process flows. This willavoid isolated and self-detached solu-tions that have no relevance for themarket and to place the emphasis onthe exemplary interaction of individu-al technologies in the product andprocess flow.

Thank you very much for this interest-ing talk, Dr. Burmeister. We wish youevery success in your work in the ZVEIand in your company as well.

The interviewer was Dr. RandolfSchließer, VDI/VDE-ITschliesser@vdivde-it.de

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

11

the Z-axis appears on the menu ofany research facility involved in thisdomain. Also IMEC, the Belgian re-search center on nano-electronicsand nanotechnology, has conducteda decent amount of work on 3D sys-tems-in-a-package (SiP) in recentyears.

3D stacksIMEC's approach consists in dividingthe 3D stack into individual subsys-tems, such as e.g. antenna, RF front-end, radio baseband, main applica-tion hardware, MEMS sensors, pow-er management and power genera-tion. The subsystems can be stackedon top of each other, realizing adense 3D-SiP. The advantage is thateach subsystem can be fully testedbefore final assembly, avoiding theknown good die problem. Severaldevices that illustrate this approachhave already been reported: a 5GHzwireless LAN transceiver includingantenna on the package, a completeBluetooth radio (baseband and RF)measuring only 7 by 7mm and an ex-treme low power autonomous2.4GHz 1cm³ SiP sensor platform (in-cluding antenna) [1].The last example plays a central partin IMEC's development of a fully au-tonomous wireless intelligent sensor.Within the Human++ program, acomplete body area network is be-ing developed for patient monitor-ing. The outcome of the program,expected around 2010, will give ananswer to the demands of the medi-cal and wellness industry forportable and discrete monitoringsystems. One of the technologydrivers behind Human++ is an inte-grated 24 channel EEG and 1 chan-nel ECG unit for use on the humanbody. The current status is a 1cm³ SiPcontaining the DSP and communica-tion components, mounted on a

board with the necessary analogelectronics for signal processing. Thelatter account for more than 80% ofthe current surface and make theentire device size more or less apackage of cigarettes. [Figure1] Thisbecomes a different story when stat-ed that the referred 80% are nowintegrated into a single chip that'ssmaller than a fingernail.

Die stackingBut there's still a long way to go and

some important obstacles to take.Current 3D stacks have typical di-mensions around one or a few cm³and are built with standard compo-nents available on the market. Forfurther development of miniaturizeddevices, interconnection technolo-gies that enable the stacking of lay-ers of chips and integration ofMEMS are key.Massive parallel hybrid integrationschemes, using through wafer viasand solder bumps, can allow high-

Advertisement

Figure 2: Solder bumped 1Mpixel CMOS imagesensor with high-density parallel integrationscheme with 10µm bump pitches (inset)]

12

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

yield assembly. Solder bumps are al-ready used to interconnect megapix-el imager sensors to ASIC read-outcircuitry [Figure2]. These, as well asimage devices for printers or dis-plays, require local interconnect be-tween each imaging pixel and itsread-out circuitry, creating the needfor high density 2-dimensional inte-gration. IMEC demonstrated arrayswith a pitch as small as 10 µm.Bumps can easily be realized by elec-troplating or evaporation on the topand/or bottom substrate. Plan-paral-lelism is a key issue to achieve con-nection yields up to 99,5%.To achieve additional miniaturiza-tion at system level, innovativemethods for thinning, handling anddeposition of dies in thin-film plat-forms have been developed. Its pos-sible to thin dies down to 10µmwithout causing damage to theirfunctionality. The thin dies can beembedded in a thin-film process andfurther interconnection can be per-formed on wafer level, avoiding con-nections via flip-chip or wire bond-ing.Even smaller devices can be achievedwhen the MEMS component is pro-cessed directly on top of its ASIC. Byusing polySiGe as the MEMS struc-tural material, this can perfectly berealized. One example, developed atIMEC, is a poly-SiGe gyroscope pro-cessed on top of standard 5-level-metal CMOS, to be presented in

February at the ISSCC conference inSan Francisco. Furthermore, thepoly-SiGe material is also suited foruse as a thin-film cap.

MEMS packagingMEMS components are indispens-able in autonomous 3D sensornodes. Since MEMS are highly sus-ceptible to post-processing damageand are therefore not compatiblewith many conventional packagingprocesses, a typical MEMS packagingsequence starts at zero level. Simplewafer-to-wafer or die-to-wafer as-sembly techniques using BCB sealsprove to be a valuable and reliableoption in a variety of situations, re-quiring only fairly straightforwardtechniques. Polymer sealing hasproven to be topography tolerant,easy to pattern, feasible at low tem-peratures - while in the meantimecompatible with higher ones - andmore than sufficiently resistant tothermal and mechanical stress. Onelimitation is that using polymers re-sults in "semi-hermetic" seals. Theseguarantee a humidity barrier and ef-fective protection against aggressiveassembly operations, and may evenprovide a humidity barrier duringthe device lifetime of MEMS switch-es [2].When full hermeticity (e.g. for vacu-um packaging) is required, Sn- or In-based seals [Figure 3] are the bestchoice, even if demanding a more

complex process sequence that willinclude for example pre-solder met-allizations on the MEMS. But the re-sult outweighs the complications.Using indent reflow sealingit is pos-sible tocontrol the ambient in a ze-ro-level package in terms of internalpressure and filling gas. But on long-term and for specific applications,outgassing remains a tricky barrierto overcome and the incorporationof getter material can be required.With these techniques, caps with athickness down to 50µm can bemounted. In order to also minimizelateral dimensions, thin-film basedcapping techniques can be used, butonly at the expense of further pro-cess complexity and more device-specific process sequences [3].

ConclusionFully autonomous monitoring sys-tems with the size of 1cm³ are veryclose to reality. Once advanced tech-nologies such as wafer thinning andMEMS processing and packaging areoptimized, further miniaturized de-vices will increasingly be demon-strated. And in a not too distant fu-ture, fascinating applications to im-prove our quality of life will un-doubtedly appear on the market.

References[1] "3D package squeeze for biosys-

tems"; IEE Electronics Systems andSoftware; Dec/Jan 2004/05, p9(http://www.imec.be/wwwinter/mediacenter/en/IEE6.pdf)

[2] "A reliable and compact polymer-based package for RF-MEMSswitches"; Oya et al; IEDM Conf.2004 Dec 12-15, San Francisco;p31-34.

[3] "Thin film encapsulation of accel-eration sensors using polysiliconsacrificial layers"; Stahl, H. e.a;Proc. Of 12th International Con-ference on, TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Mi-crosystems; 2003 vol.2, p1899-1902

Contact:Koen Snoeckx is scientific editor at IMEC.Kris Baert is vice-director of the integrat-ed systems department at IMEC.Chris Van Hoof is head of the integratedsystems department at IMEC.Eric Beyne is program director packagingat IMEC.

Figure 3: Illustration of hermetic metal sealing through the indent reflow sealing approach.

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

13

IntroductionMesoscale systems, i.e., systems thatexploit mesoscale objects as highlyfunctional device elements, are be-coming more prevalent in the fieldsof electronics, optoelectronics, sen-sors, MEMS and MOEMS, and aretypically fabricated using integrationmethods that involve microrobotic

picking of individual devices fol-lowed by placement at selected re-gions at a chip surface. However, ac-curate placement of discrete devicesis becoming difficult as device sizecontinues to shrink, since adhesiveforces (electrostatic, Van der Waalsand capillary) between device andmicrotweezers begin to dominaterelative to gravitational forces re-quired for device release.

Therefore, a critical challenge, in thefabrication of future hybrid integrat-ed systems that exploit mesoscale ob-jects as active device elements, is thelack of availability of integrationtools that enable successful manipu-lation and assembly of these devicesinto sparse or dense arrays at a chipsurface. To address this challenge,we have recently reported develop-ment of a novel "hands-free" inte-

gration method, Field ConfigurableAssembly (FCA). In this method, elec-tric fields, configured by selective ad-dressing of receptor and counterelectrode sites pre-patterned onto asilicon chip substrate, drive the elec-trophoretic transport, positioningand localisation, i.e., self-assembly,of mesoscale objects at each of theselected receptor electrode locations;see Figure 1.

Field Configurable Assembly: Programmable Hetero-geneous Integration at the Mesoscale

Alan O'Riordan and Gareth Redmond

Field Configurable Assembly is anovel programmable force fieldbased heterogeneous integrationtechnology. In this review, wedemonstrate application of themethod to rapid assembly of sub-100 micron GaAs-based light emit-ting diodes at silicon chip sub-strates. We also show that themethod is compatible with post-process collective wiring techniquesfor fully planar hybrid integrationof active devices.

Advertisement

Figure 1: E-field simulation showing electricfields around a biased receptor electrode.

14

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

Device Assembly Using Electric FieldsTo demonstrate the applicability andversatility of this novel method, wehave applied FCA to serial and paral-lel self-assembly of a broad range ofmesoscale components including 1micron diameter latex beads, 50 mi-cron diameter and 80 micron diame-ter 670 nm emitting GaAs based lightemitting diodes (LEDs), at silicon chipassembly substrates [1].

As a platform for demonstration ofFCA, simple silicon chip substratestypically comprise 4 x 4 arrays of re-ceptor electrodes (100 micron diame-ter 250 micron pitch) implemented indisc-and-torus formats with circularcounter electrodes (500 micron diam-eter) located at the four corners ofeach array. Conducting interconnec-tion tracks are employed to contacteach electrode to a unique contactpad located on the periphery of thechip substrate. To prevent electricfields associated with the intercon-nection tracks adversely interferingwith site selective assembly, siliconchip substrates are overlaid with aconductive metal shield layer sand-wiched between two bisbenzocy-clobutene (BCB) polymer layers. Tofacilitate electrical addressing of theelectrodes, vias are opened in allthree layers above each of the recep-tor and counter electrodes and con-tact pads by optical lithography andetching; see Figure 2.

In this electric field assisted assemblymethod, voltage biases must be ap-plied to selected receptor andcounter electrodes. To this end, theFCA electrical addressing systemcomprises a DC power supply con-nected to a multiplexer unit, which,via probe card connection to thecontact pads on the assembly sub-strate (chip or wafer), enables pro-grammable addressing of the entirereceptor and counter electrode arrayunder PC-based LabVIEW™ control.In this manner, the electric field dis-tribution around any receptor elec-

trode site(s) may be configured asdesired.

Prior to assembly, mesoscale compo-nents, e.g., 80 micron diameter LEDsare first suspended in a suitabletransport medium and then random-ly dispensed on the surface of a sili-con. To achieve FCA, application of avoltage bias to a selected receptorelectrode (typically -20 V versus thecounter electrodes, resulting in anelectric field strength, E = 6.66 x 103V/m) is sufficient to drive the elec-trophoretic transport and localisa-tion of a LED device at the selectedsite; see Figure 3.

Following assembly, devices may bepermanently bonded to respectivereceptor electrodes by reflow ofSn/Au solder layers overlaying the re-ceptor electrodes. To complete pack-aging of the assembled devices, atop metal contact is deposited, fol-lowing a planarisation step, to facili-tate direct electrical addressing ofeach device. Typical I/V characteris-

tics, measured for LEDs assembledand integrated in this mannerdemonstrate standard GaAs p-n junc-tion behaviour with a voltage thresh-old of just over 1.7 V for light emis-sion; see Figure 4.

ConclusionIn this review, we have shown"hands-free" assembly and integra-tion of sub-100 micron GaAs-basedlight emitting diodes at silicon chipsubstrates using a new technique,Field Configurable Assembly. Al-though we have used LEDs as modelfunctional mesoscale devices, thetechnique is applicable to either seri-al or parallel self-assembly of a widerange of device types at a broad vari-ety of substrates. Future applicationsfor this novel assembly technologycould range from nanoelectronicsthrough nanophotonics to nanoscalebiotechnology.

References[1] O'Riordan, A.; Delaney, P. & Red-

mond, G., Nano Lett. 4, 761(2004).

ContactGareth RedmondTyndall National Institute, Lee Maltings, Prospect Row, Cork, Ireland.Email gareth.redmond@tyndall.iewww.tyndall.ie/nanotech

Figure 2: Schematic of device assembly at a sili-con chip substrate.

Figure 3: (a) - (c) Video image frames showingFCA of an 80 micron GaAs-based LED.

Figure 4: (a) Optical micrograph a fully pack-aged LED, (b) I/V characteristic.

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

15

Air Cushion Gripper The principle of an air cushion grip-per (Figure 1) is based on a vacuumpre-stressed air bearing. The gripperincludes several arrays of pressureand vacuum nozzles. Located on thebottom side, these create an air cush-

ion, separating the gripper and themicro part, which is levitated under-neath the gripper.

To grip a part the high and the lowpressure must be adjustable. Theweight of the part has to be in equi-librium with the pushing and pullingforces exerted by the air cushion. Astable equilibrium is reached at a gapof about 10 microns between the aircushion gripper and the part.

In addition lateral forces must be ap-plied to the part to provide accuratecentring and to allow high accelera-tions in a pick-and-place process. Therequired centring device can be im-plemented by simple mechanicalstops that must be adjustable to thesize of the part. A new contactlesscentring can be realised by using afluid dynamic effect. As a precondi-tion, air must be sucked into the gapbetween gripper and part. Addition-ally the gripper surface must be con-gruent to the part surface. Underthese circum-stances a small region oflow pressure is built up on the part'slateral surface. If the gripped part isin an off-centre position the differ-ence between the low pressure andthe ambient pressure on the opposingpart sides generates a resulting forceagainst the direction of displacement.This effect provides a stable lateralpositioning of the gripped part.

Contactless Handling of Micro Parts

M. Franzkowiak, S. Grünwald, M. Schilp, A. Zitzmann, J. Heinzl and M. F. Zaeh

Microsystems are assembled out ofparts that have functional surfaceswith fragile structures. These newcharacteristics pose a challenge tohandling technologies for microparts, as any mechanical contactcan result in damage to a grippedpart and, consequently, to the de-struction of the whole microsystem.To reduce this yield loss any contactbetween micro parts and handlingequipment should be eliminated.This requirement can be met bythree innovative approaches tocontactless handling presented inthis article.

Figure 1: Air cushion gripper

Advertisement

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

16

Ultrasonic LevitationLevitation effects within ultrasonicfields are based on a squeeze film oracoustic standing waves. A new application of squeeze filmlevitation is the contactless handlingof MEMS. The ultrasonic source is aLangevin Bolt Transducer (Figure 2),which has a constant work (resonance) frequency of 30 kHz.

The sonotrode is hollow-bored andeasily exchangeable. The oscillationamplitude at the sonotrode tipreaches values between 10 and 30µm. Parts can be picked from aboveby the combination of ultrasonic andvacuum. The vacuum forces the partsto the gripper surface. The air cush-ion generated by the high frequencyoscillation of the sonotrode producesa repulsive force on the part. Finallythere is an equilibrium of these twoforces and the weight of the handledpart. The most important demandfor the function of the contactlesshandler is a safe and reliable lateralcentring of parts. Similar to the aircushion gripper, it is possible to cen-tre the part below the gripper by flu-id dynamic effects. A further phenomenon that can beused for handling parts without con-tact, is the levitation based on theacoustic standing wave. The arrange-ment consists of a reflector and a vi-brating sonotrode and is called a res-onator. The distance between bothelements is an integer multiple ofhalf the wavelength. The front endscan be planar or concave. In the res-onator, small parts are levitated inthe pressure nodes of the standingwave.

To stabilise and manipulate a part inthe sound field the effect shown inFigure 3 can be used. The red colourindicates the increase of sound veloc-

ity at the edges of an object placedin the sound field. This increase leadsto a pressure reduction. Using addi-tional surfaces this phenomenon isused in present investigations to im-prove the positioning and orienta-tion accuracy of parts in the soundfield.

Summary and OutlookThe contactless grippers presentedhere show several advantages com-pared to conventional tactile grip-pers. A homogeneously distributedforce enables sensitive gripping offragile parts. Thus parts can begripped attheir functionalsurfaces, elimi-nating theneed to designextra grippingareas increas-ing the partsize. Addition-ally, non-con-tact centringprinciples donot exceed thepart size, as nomechanicalboundaries areneeded. In con-sequence thedistance be-tween mount-ed parts can beminimised.Disadvantagesare the lowflexibility todifferent partshapes and theneed of addi-tional equip-ment, like ul-trasonicsources andpressure sup-ply. This workis part of the

research cooperation "Mikroproduk-tionstechnik - ForMikroProd" andsponsored by the BayerischeForschungsstiftung.

Contact:Michael FranzkowiakInstitute for Machine Tools and IndustrialManagement at the Technical Universityof Munich, GermanyBoltzmannstr. 15 85747 GarchingPhone: +49 89 289 15436

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Joachim HeinzlDipl.-Ing. (FH) Stefan GrünwaldProfessorship for Instrumentation Engi-neering and MicrotechnicsProf. Dr.-Ing. Michael F. ZaehDipl.-Ing. Michael FranzkowiakDipl.-Ing. Michael SchilpDipl.-Ing. Adolf Zitzmann. Institute for Machine Tools and IndustrialManagement at the Technical Universityof Munich, Germany

Figure 2: Squeeze film vacuum gripper

Figure 3: Sound velocity around a part in astanding wave (left) and arrangement ofsonotrode, reflector, and levitated part (right)

Advertisement

17

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G / E V E N T S

1 05

MISECThe Microsystems Engineering Centre(MISEC) situated at Heriot Watt Uni-versity, Edinburgh, Scotland, compris-es expertise in wide areas of micro en-

gineering of 7 members of the aca-demic staff and over 20 research asso-ciates and PhD researchers. MISECspecialises in micro-actuators, RF-MEMS and advanced assembly ofMEMS.

IntroductionRequirements for two-dimensional ar-rays of optical single mode fibres(SMF) are expected to increase as ar-rays of micro machined optical emit-ters and detectors are now starting tobecome commercially available. Sucharrays are forecast to be used in agrowing number of possible applica-tions in optics that require largebandwidth communication systems,switching systems and fibre array cou-pling elements. Current methods toproduce such arrays are mainly basedon passive alignment techniques thatmostly use Silicon etched one- or two-dimensional arrays or micro ferrules,into which the SMF are placed. At

present none of the reported passiveor active alignment methods canovercome the misalignment caused byfabrication tolerances of the SMFsand at the same time be used to man-ufacture two-dimensional arrays.

Micro HolderAn array of micro holes, each sur-rounded by four electrodes, was pro-duced using two methods: a modifiedLIGA process and a photo-etchedglass process in collaboration withIMM Mainz. The ends of the SMFs areto be coated with a thin, conductivemetal layer and inserted into individu-al holes, which have been filled withUV curable glue beforehand. The di-ameter of the insertion holes is biggerthan the outer diameter of the metal-coated fibre, therefore allowing un-complicated insertion and somemovement of the fibre inside the holeas required for an active alignment

Optical Fibre Array Manufacture using ElectrostaticActuationDominik Weiland and Marc Desmulliez

A method to manufacture two-di-mensional bundles of optical singlemode fibres is described in this arti-cle. Submicron translational align-ment accuracy is being implement-ed by this method. An array of mi-cro holes, each surrounded by fourelectrodes, was produced using theLIGA process. Electrostatic fields be-tween the electrodes and a metalcoated optical single mode fibre in-serted into such a hole were usedto position the fibre inside thehole. High positioning accuracy canbe realised by combining electro-static movement and optical moni-toring of the actual fibre positionin a closed loop feedback align-ment system.

Temperature takes a special placeamong the physical dimensions be-cause each energy conversion pro-duces a heat quantity which in turnaffects the temperature of the envi-ronment Furthermore, many sensorsare based on thermal principles sincetemperature is a dimension whichcan be measured with relative sim-plicity.In addition to the determination ofobject temperature, it is possible todetect the radiation energy emittedby a body (infrared sensors). Otherquantities, too, like flow rate, dewpoint and thus air humidity, inclina-tion, or heat conductivity can bemeasured besides examining, locallyand at high resolution, the energybalance of physical, chemical, or bio-logical processes (calorimetry). Forthis reason, a large number of well-known and technically employedsensors are based on temperaturemeasurements.Finally, thermal energy can in partseven be converted into electrical en-ergy by means of the Seebeck effect.

Such thermoelectric generators aregaining increasing importance forthe power supply of autarkic mi-crosystems.On the other hand, the physical lawsthat permit this vast diversity of pos-sible applications also lead to a cer-tain difficulty in the application ofthermal sensors, which is the consid-erable cross-sensitivity to environ-ment parameters. Basically, the chal-lenge in developing a thermal sensorlies in transporting the desiredamount of heat to the gauging ele-ment and to convert it to a measur-able change in temperature withoutparasitic thermal effects. This re-quires appropriate design and ade-quate layout of thermal resistances.Microsystem engineering offers verygood chances for the realisation ofthese goals: Thin silicon nitride mem-branes feature very large thermal re-sistances and offer extremely smallthermal capacities. Silicon has a largeheat conductance and can be ma-chined very precisely.

A workshop on this topic took placeat the Institute for Micro and Infor-mation Technology in Villingen-Schwenningen in September 2004.Representatives of industry and sci-ence portrayed the various thermalsensor principles and offered theirexperience for sensor development,application, and commercialisation.This workshop was very much wel-comed by a large audience from in-dustry. In order to offer this kind ofaccess to latest technical results alsoto developers in other regions, theworkshop shall be repeated withspeakers from European industry andresearch institutes at various loca-tions all over Germany in 2005.

The next two workshops will be sup-ported by the IRC Northern Germanyto facilitate SMEs entrance to thisspecial sensor know-how. Further in-formation of the events and dateswill be published on the IRC's webpage

www.irc-norddeutschland.de

Workshops on Microtechnical Thermal Sensors Announced

Continuation on page 34

18

E V E N T S

1 05

Courses of FSRM - Training in Mi-crosystems:

March 03 - 04, 2005Microfluidics: Pipetting, Dispens-ing and MicroarraysFreiburg - GermanyMarch 07 -08, 2005Reliability + Test of MicrosystemsZurich - SwitzerlandMarch 10 - 11, 2005Characterization + Modification ofMicro- and Nano-structures Barcelona - Spain

www.fsrm.ch

March 07-08, 2005µSys Berlin - Microsystems fair andcongresswww.mikrosys-berlin.deBerlin - Germany

March 10, 2005Free Seminar "The Challenges ofTesting MEMS"www.memmunity.comDortmund - Germany

March 17 - 18, 20059th International Forum on AdvancedMicrosystems for Automotive Appli-cations AMAAwww.amaa.deBerlin - Germany

March 21 - 24, 2005NSTI - CEI Nanotechnology CourseSeriesSpring 2005 European Programmewww.nsti.org/coursesDavos - Switzerland

March 22-23, 20052nd Int'l Workshop on Nano & Bio-Electronics Packagingwww.prc.gatech.edu/nanobiopackAtlanta, Georgia - USA

April 04-08, 2005VisionOnline Course: "AdvancedNanotechnology - Materials, Process-es, Structures and Applications"Contact: julie@tfi-ltd.co.ukCork - Ireland

April 06-08, 2005ECIO'05 - 12th European Conferenceon Integrated Optics www.minatec.com/ECIO05/Grenoble - France

April 10 - 13, 2005Ceramic Interconnect and CeramicMicrosystems Technologies (CICMT)www.ceramics.org/meetings/am2005Baltimore, Maryland - USA.

April 11, 2005MEMS/MST Industry Forum of SEMIEuropewww.semi.org/semiconeuropaMunich - Germany

April 11-15, 2005MicroTechnology Int'l Exhibitionat Hannover Int'l Industrial Fair www.schau-Platz.de/nanowww.hannovermesse.de/and with Product Market Microtech-nology www.ivam.deHannover - Germany

April 13-15, 2005ISOEN 2005 - Int'l Symposium on Ol-faction and Electronic Noseswww.isoen2005.org/Barcelona - Spain

April 17 - 20, 2005MEMS V - ASME 5th Annual MEMSTechnology SeminarEarly bird rate until Mar. 01, 2005 !www.asme.org/education/techsem/MEMS/Minneapolis, MN - USA

April 20 - 21, 2005World Nano-Economic Congress Europewww.world-nano.comDublin, Ireland

April 26-29, 2005Microsystemtechnik 2005Special fair for MST and Ultra Preci-sion Engineeringmicrosystemtechnik.schall-messen.de/de/microsystemtechnikSinsheim - Germany

May 08-11, 2005euspen 5th Int'l Conference & 7thAnnual General Meetinghttp://euspen2005.univ-montp2.fr/Montpellier - France

May 08-12, 20052005 NSTI Nanotechnology Confer-ence & Trade Showwww.nsti.org/Nanotech2005/Anaheim, CA - USA

May 10-12,2005SENSOR+TEST 200512th Int'l Trade Fair and Conferencesfor Sensorics, Measuring and TestingTechnologieswww.sensorfairs.deNuremberg - Germany

June 01 - 03, 2005DTIP 05 - Design, Test, Integrationand Packaging of MEMS/MOEMShttp://tima.imag.fr/Conferences/dtipMontreux - Switzerland

June 05 - 09,2005Transducers '05Reduced fee for registering boothesuntil March 31, 2005! www.transducers05.orgCOEX, Seoul - Korea

June 22 - 25, 2005MIXDES 200512th Int'l Conference "Mixed Designof Integrated Circuits and Systems"Paper due date: Feb 28, 2005www.mixdes.orgKrakow - Poland

Aug 28 - Sept 02, 2005Optics and OptoelectronicsAbstracts due date: Feb 14, 2005http://spie.org/events/polandWarsaw - Poland

Sep 04 - 06, 2005MME 05 - MicroMechanics EuropeAbstracts due date: June 10, 2005www.mc2.chalmers.se/mc2/confer-ences/MME05/Göteborg - Sweden

Sept 12 - 16, 2005Optical Systems Design 2005Conference, plenary presentations,courses, tabletop exhibitionAbstracts due date: Feb 28, 2005http://spie.org/events/eodJena - Germany

Oct 05-06, 2005Micro System Technologies 2005Main topic fro 2005: MicrosystemPackaging and FabricationAbstract due date: Feb 25, 2005 www.mesago.de/mstMunich - Germany

EVENTS

Call for Papers

mstnews publishes selected announcements and calls. Pleasesend your news to mstnews@vdivde-it.de.

19

S h o r t N e w s

1 05

EV Group's IQ Aligner to SupportPromerus LLC's Work on Materials forAdvanced Wafer-level PackagingEV Group (EVG), a leading manufac-turer of MEMS, nano and semicon-ductor wafer-processing equipment,reported about the shipping and suc-cessfully installation of an IQ Alignerat Promerus LLC, a leading developerof advanced materials for applicationsin the semiconductor, optoelectronicand semiconductor packaging mar-kets.Promerus will use the IQ aligner fordevelopment of next generationwafer-level packaging materials. Theadvanced-packaging capabilities ofthe IQ Aligner, which offers customersa lower cost of ownership, includephotolithographic processes to per-form IC packaging at wafer level inprototype or volume production.With both 200mm and 300mm wafer-size capability, EVG's IQ Aligners offerfull-field exposure, and large gap anddark-field mask alignment.Promerus is a technology driven orga-nization providing advanced electron-ic materials for the next generation ofapplications in the semiconductor, op-toelectronic and semiconductor pack-aging markets. As a U.S. based sub-sidiary of Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.,Promerus strives to deliver value to itscustomers and to provide a challeng-ing and rewarding environment forits employees. More information idavailable at www.Promerus.comEV Group - founded in 1980 - is aglobal supplier of wafer bonders,aligners, photoresist coaters, cleanersand inspection systems for semicon-ductor, MEMS and emerging nan-otechnology markets. EV Group holdsthe dominant share of the market forwafer bonding equipment (especiallySOI bonding) and is a leader in lithog-raphy for advanced packaging andnanotechnology. Headquartered inSchärding, Austria, EV Group operatesvia a global customer support net-work, with subsidiaries in Tempe, Ari-zona; Albany, New York; Yokohamaand Fukuoka, Japan; and Chung-Li,Taiwan. For more information pleasevisit www.EVGroup.com

Sieves and Meshes from TECAN areBio-world's Most AccurateSieves and meshes, for the most de-manding medical, pharmaceutical andbio-engineering needs, are now avail-able from Tecan, a company based at

Dorset, UK. They can be produced instandard and bespoke forms to offer,screening, filtering and particulateprocessing accuracy levels which areunmatched in the industry. By em-ploying leading-edge Photo Electro-Forming (PEF) techniques, believed tobe the most advanced in the world,the company is producing high-accu-racy sieves with super-fine apertureswhich are highly consistent across themesh. The sieves can be supplied inASTM (American Society for Testingand Materials) standard frames, andunlike traditional frames, can meet orexceed the standard's aperture toler-ance requirements.PEF produces highly-accurate sieveswith repeatable consistency, at thelowest possible cost. Typical applica-tions include medical, pharmaceuticaland food processing markets de-manding the highest standards. Thenew sieves are fabricated in hard nick-el, as opposed to the traditional softnickel, this significantly boosts opera-tional life, especially where abrasivematerials are being processed, such asindustrial diamonds. Sieves can besupplied in standard three-inch poly-carbonate diameter frames, or eight-inch stainless steel frames, the lattercan be full-depth (two-inch) or half-depth (one-inch). In all cases, thesieves may be specified with or with-out integral hard-nickel support grids.Furthermore, the company can alsosupply sieves with no frames, againwith or without integral supportgrids. All apertures are highly accu-rate and, regardless of the aperturesize, or shape (square / round), havetolerances of +/- 2µm.More information is available at www.tecan.co.uk

enablingMNT Report on Test andMeasurement Equipment and ServicesUnlike electronic devices, where onlyelectrical parameters need to be test-ed, MNT devices require precise mea-surement of multi domain and inter-related parameters. Testing of MNTproducts is much more complex thentesting of standard electronic compo-nents. As MNT devices move fromR&D and low volume to high vol-umes, metrology becomes increasing-ly important, while accurate, reliableand valid testing is a key to improvingthe quality and yield of MST/MEMSdevices. Demands on test equipment

shift to throughput and automatichandling of products and data. Thelatest in a series of enablingMNT re-ports offers information about usedtechnologies and companies active inthis area.In general enablingMNT offers infor-mation on the complete supply chainthat enables a flexible and economi-cal MNT manufacturing: the serviceand equipment suppliers of micro andnanotechnology such as foundries,design & engineering companies,front end equipment suppliers, etc.The reports are available at 280each. In addition to the series of re-ports, enablingMNT also offers con-sultancy. www.enablingmnt.com

DARPA Intends to Support ProcessRun Submissions to be Executedthrough the MEMS Exchange NetworkRecently the US Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency DARPA pub-lished a Broad Agency Announce-ment (BAA), specifically BAA-05-12,soliciting proposals for funding op-portunities related to the MEMS Ex-change. Specifically, DARPA intendsto support process run submissionsfrom the community that will be exe-cuted through the MEMS Exchangenetwork of foundries. Preferably,these process run submissions should demonstrate and challenge the fabri-cation capabilities of the MEMS Ex-change. This is a unique opportunityfor US MEMS developers to get fund-ing support from DARPA to help cov-er the fabrication cost of implement-ing their MEMS devices through theMEMS Exchange while simultaneous-ly obtaining innovative MEMS devicesthat would be otherwise difficult orimpossible to realize. DARPA , theleading Governmental organization in the United States for the advance-ment of MEMS technology , is sponsorof the MEMS Exchange program aswell as . The primary charter of theMEMS Exchange has been the estab-lishment, operation, and refinementof a unique fabrication resource,which has been providing fabricationservices to the entire MEMS communi-ty since it was established in 1999.The MEMS Exchange has developedinto a national fabrication resourcethat allows MEMS developers fromanywhere in the country to imple-ment their MEMS devices with fareasier access and greater design and

20

S h o r t N e w s

1 05

process freedom than from any othersource. Please review the solicitationat the DARPA Web site:http://www.darpa.mil/baa/#eto

Competitive Call For an AdditionalProject Partner at SHIFT (Excerpt)The project "IST-IP-507745-SHIFT",Smart High-Integration Flex Technolo-gies currently active in the SixthFramework programme of the Euro-pean Community requires the partici-pation of a new project partner tocarry out Large Area Panel (LAP) pro-cessing tasks: HiCOFlex(http://www.hightec.ch/index1.html)processes shall be transferred to exist-ing 12" x 12" or 24" x 24" facilities.Expansion of LAP processes to theprocessing of polyimide, sputteringand photolithographic processing ofconductors shall be developed. A de-fined set of process steps shall be car-ried out. Proposers should possess theinfrastructure necessary. The dura-tion of participation is expected asJune 2005 to December 2007. TotalCommission funding available is 170.000 for research activities (esti-mated 320.000, to be supported byCommission funding up to 50%) ,small additional training as well asconsortium management activities (tobe supported by EC funding up to100%). The proposal should be sub-mitted in English Language. Date ofclose of call : March 16, 2005 Time ofclose of call - 17h00 Brussels time.The full call text, also indicating thedefined process steps to execute, andfurther information is available atwww.vdivde-it.de/portale/shift/or from the project co-ordinatorIMEC/INTEC/TFCG, Mr. Jan Vanfleterene-mail: Jan.Vanfleteren@elis.ugent.be

Yole Collaborated with 2 World Famous Technical Experts to Con-tribute to the Realization of CommonMarket AnalysisEnd of last year, Yole Développementhas collaborated with 2 world famoustechnical experts to contribute to therealization of common market analy-sis. The 1st report was released in De-cember 2004 in collaboration withGlennan Microsystems Inc. (US). Thispublication describes new develop-ments and market opportunities forMEMS in harsh environments. Untilrecently, MEMS devices were limitedto standard environment use. Now,

extended applications are possible us-ing new materials such as SiC or SOI.With the remarkable contribution ofQinetiQ (UK), the "MEMS on IC"study analyzes the technology andthe applications of MEMS integration.This report (Nov. 2004) explains howthe market share of integrated MEMSwill grow from 41% in 2003 to almost50% within 2 years. Indeed, theMEMS business is under strong reor-ganization. Since the last few years,there has been a strong involvementof IC manufacturers to find new op-portunities business in MEMS, espe-cially in large volume markets.Yole is in contact continuously withworldwide key players to help themto understand the markets and tech-nology trends MEMS and compoundsemiconductors markets. Reports to be released in 2005 are:

Optical MEMS applications for nontelecom markets (B$3 market in2008)Emerging markets for microfluidicapplications (B$2 market in 2010)MEMS for applications in mobilephones (M$ 250 market in 2008)

Read all about Yole athttp://www.yole.fr

MicroNanoWorld - Munich Fair Setsup a New Brand Munich Fair GmbH, the organizer ofseveral well renowned technologyfairs at the new fairground in Munich,Germany, has set up Micro-NanoWorld, a new brand as "roof"for all activities in the fields of micro-and nanotechnologies. According tothe particular fair or congress, Micro-NanoWorld will be particularly fo-cussed. MicroNanoWorld at Produc-tronica 2005 will focus on solutionsfor micro and nano production. It willshow processes, process chains andprocess equipment for all needs inproduction of microsystems. The tech-nical scope of MicroNanoWorld willinclude assembly, connection andpackaging technologies, materials,simulation and design methods andtools, equipment for production, as-sembly, placement, handling andmounting as well as ultra precisionmachine tools, bonders, measurementequipment, complete process chainsand so on. Further focal points are the"MicroSystemsTechnology User Fo-rum", the "Product Market Mi-crotechnology" and live presentationsat demo production lines.

MicroNanoWorld at electronica 2006however will be the industry platformfor micro and nanotechnical productsand their applications. Focal pointsare micro-components, -sensors, -actu-ators and -systems, displays and vari-ous branch specific applications. An-other focal point is the "World ofMEMS" in the field of semiconduc-tors. This approach enables the new brandMicroNanoWorld to represent thewhole value creation chain and allowsto benefit in an optimal amount fromthe well established and worldwidewell renowned fairs Productronicaand electronica. More informationwill be given in the next mstnews is-sue and will soon be available atwww.messe-muenchen.de/id/26013

Colibrys Acquires Applied MEMSBusiness from I/OMerged Entity will be a Leading Glob-al Provider of Advanced MEMS TechnologyInput/Output, Inc. (NYSE: IO) and Coli-brys SA, a privately held firm based inNeuchâtel, Switzerland, announced inthe end of 2004 that Colibrys hascompleted the acquisition of the Ap-plied MEMS subsidiary from I/O in anall-stock transaction. Colibrys designsand manufactures high-performanceMEMS products and offers contractmanufacturing services for MEMS de-vices to customers in the defense,aerospace, telecommunications, lifesciences, industrial imaging, and ener-gy industries. The new company,which will retain the name Colibrysand remain headquartered in Switzer-land, will become one of the largestand most technologically advancedfirms in the global MEMS industry. I/Owill retain a minority equity interestin the new company and hold oneseat on the Colibrys Board of Direc-tors. I/O also will retain ownership ofall intellectual property associatedwith the Applied MEMS business andwill license this technology to Colibrysas part of the transaction. Moving for-ward, Colibrys will be the supplier toI/O of MEMS accelerometers used inthe company's VectorSeis digital, full-wave seismic sensors while I/O willhave preferential rights to Colibrys'MEMS technology for seismic applica-tions involving natural resource ex-traction. Additional information isavailable at: www.i-o.com/About_us/News_Room

N E X U S - N e w s

211 05

How can we connect cells, bytes andmolecules with R&D, industry and in-ventors - that was the subject of atwo-day international forum held inMelbourne, Australia, recently. Thesecond Asia-Pacific MicroNano Com-mercialisation Workshop, 9-10 Dec2004, was designed to build a morecohesive and focused business envi-ronment for the commercialisation ofmicro and nano technologies in theAsia-Pacific region.The 2004 workshop was run as a two-day forum with the theme "HealthyOpportunities from Small Technolo-gies". The term 'small technologies'refers to the integration of micro-,nano- and biotechnologies with infor-mation technology. The workshopsprovided networking opportunitiesfor the commercial development ofsmall technologies in health care, aswell as the chance to share views. The event focused on the impact ofsmall technologies on the future ofhealth care in terms of the businessdevelopment environment and thechallenges posed to society by the in-creasing prevalence of these tech-nologies. With over 20 key speakersfrom the US, Europe and the Asia-Pa-cific regions, the forum attractedmore than 200 key health stakehold-ers. Representatives from companies,academic institutions, government,the media and the broader communi-ty provided a stimulating exchange ofideas through presentations and pan-el discussions. Case studies in keyemerging technologies included: bio-materials for implants and tissue re-generation; diagnostics and imagingthrough biosensors; therapeutics innew drug delivery systems; and associ-

ated prospects for the personalisationof health care through informationtechnology.

The European Commission was wellrepresented by Dirk Beernaert, Headof Unit, Micro and Nanosystems, Inte-gration, Information Society Tech-nologies (IST), who gave a keynoteaddress on European direction andstrategy for the exploitation of'smart' micro and nano technologiesfor the ambient intelligent environ-ment. The NEXUS Association wasrepresented by Steering Committeemember Patric Salomon, who deliv-ered an overview on NEXUS' role andadded value in launching the User-supplier Clubs. His presentation high-lighted the success of the NEXUS User-supplier Club "Medical" (led by DianaHodgins, ETB), the development of atechnology-application roadmap andthe launch of new user-driven inter-national collaborative projects in themedical sector. Organisations in Victo-ria are looking for the implementa-tion of ideas similar to the NEXUSconcept in order to increase exploita-tion of results from the well-devel-oped academic R&D infrastructure inthe Melbourne area.

The forum was part of the VictorianGovernment's ongoing developmentstrategy for small technologies with afocus on applications. The VictorianGovernment is facilitating the estab-lishment of the Australian Small Tech-nologies Alliance(www.smalltech.org.au) through theformation of 'sector initiative groups'(SIGs) - an approach similar to theNEXUS User-supplier Clubs. It is ex-

pected that a number of SIGs will de-velop as a lead-up to the industry-fo-cused 2nd National NanotechnologyConference, 26-28 Sep 2005, Mel-bourne, Australia(www.mateng.asn.au/Nano2005/Tech-Prog.htm). The Alliance will help pro-mote international linkages andstrategic partnerships to exploit theemerging business of nanotechnologyand microtechnology in key sectors,including health, textiles, food, auto-motive and materials.

Australian companies and researchcentres are already actively engagingwith European partners developingproject proposals that address EU FP6calls, especially in the area of medicaland health applications of small tech-nologies. Australia offers its Europeanpartners: unique scientific and techni-cal excellence; access to the Asia-Pacif-ic region; and access to Australia'swell-developed, compliant and regu-lated health care system. Australia al-so has a thriving biotechnology indus-try.

Contacts:Harry BuskesE-Mail: harry.buskes@iird.vic.gov.auMichael KrienE-Mail: michael.krien@iird.vic.gov.auDIIRD Victoria, Australiawww.innovation.vic.gov.au

Andrew CampitelliMiniFAB (Aust) Pty Ltd, AustraliaE-Mail: andrewcampitelli@MiniFAB.com.auwww.MiniFAB.com.au

Patric Salomo, 4M2C, GermanyE-Mail: patric.salomon@4m2c.com

NEXUS and EC Representation at the "Healthy Opportunities fromSmall Technologies Forum", Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2004

The creation of a new, combined,NEXUS User-Supplier-Club (USC) andMethodology Working Group(MWG) to focus on the Ambient In-telligent Environment from amicro/nano technology (MNT) per-spective was discussed at a meetingof experts on the 13th of March 2005in Prague. Attending this meetingwere representatives from industry,academia, research and NEXUS who

have all agreed to formally launchthis new USC/MWG with the follow-ing specific aims:

To clarify the opportunity offeredby the ambient intelligent envi-ronment to MNTEstablish a forum for engagingusers, human factor experts andtechnologists and Widen the scope of ambient intel-

ligence beyond that of the smarthome.

To this end, this initiating group hasundertaken to disseminate informa-tion and attract participation atforthcoming meetings.

Contact:Dr Ayman El-Fatatry E-Mail: a.el-fatatry@lboro.ac.uk

A new NEXUS USC/MWG on "Ambient Intelligent Environment"

22

N E X U S - N e w s

1 05

Broadening the range of microsys-tems-based products and simultane-ously multiplying their capabilitiesrequires the integration of new ma-terials and precision-engineeringtechnologies for their processingwith IC-based, batch-fabrication pro-cesses. The present suite of mi-crotechnologies will not be ablealone to meet the manufacturing de-mands for high aspect ratio struc-tures, enhanced forced microactua-tion, improved environment resis-tance and high-precision microcom-ponents. These are the biggest chal-lenges to micro product develop-ment and at the same representpromising research and developmentareas for innovation and value cre-ation. In this context, the main goalof the Conference is to provide a fo-rum for experts from industry andacademia to share the results of theirin-depth investigations and engagein interdisciplinary discussions aboutmicro-technologies for batch-pro-cessing of metals, polymers and ce-ramics, and the development of newproduction platforms for multi-mate-rial micro products.

The conference will take place at theCentre for Advanced Technological

and Environmental Training ofForschungszentrum Karlsruhe(www.fzk.de), Germany.

Papers are invited on all aspects ofmanufacturing of metal, polymerand ceramic microstructures andtheir application in microsystems-based products, in particular, but notlimited to:

Micro-TECHNOLOGIESPolymer ProcessingProcessing of MetalsProcessing of CeramicsMetrologyAssembly and Packaging

APPLICATIONSMicroopticsMicrofluidicsMicro-Sensors and Actuators

Submission of Abstracts shall beelectronic only at: www.4m-net.org/4M_ConferenceDeadline: 31 March 2005

Contact:Dr. Stefan Dimov (Co-Chair)Jeanette Whyte (Conf. Secretary)Cardiff University, UKE-mail: whytejc@cf.ac.ukwww.4m-net.org

NEXUS Membership is open to allcompanies and institutes, world-wide, that are able to contributeexpertise in areas relevant to microsystems technology.To apply for membership, com-plete the online questionnaire forthe NEXUS Who's who on theNEXUS website: www.nexus-mems.com

NEXUS Membership

"4M Network of Excellence" to Organise First International Conference on "Multi-Material Micro Manufacture", Karlsruhe, 29 Jun - 1 Jul 2005

NEXUS Contact

NEXUS News is provided to NEXUSmembers and other interested mst-news readers by the NEXUS Associ-ation.

The NEXUS Association is partlyfunded through the NEXUSPLUSproject within the EC IST pro-gramme in FP6 to:

Disseminate and cross-fertilisebetween FP6 Integrated Projectsand Networks of Excellence.Increase ACC participation inNEXUS activities and within ECFP6 projects.

NEXUS Officec/o Leti, FranceE-mail: NEXUS@cea.frwww.nexus-mems.com

NEXUS News ContactPatric Salomon, Germany NEXUS News Editor 4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: nexus-news@4m2c.com

Since 1998, the NEXUS Market Analy-sis for Microsystems has been themost recognized source of market fig-ures for Microsystems worldwide. TheTask Force Market Analysis led byWTC is currently preparing the updat-ed report entitled "Market Analysisfor Microsystems III 2004-2009". Thisfollows on from the highly successful1996-2002 and 2000-2005 report thathas become industry standard. Theupdated report will be available inSep 2005.

New features of the upcoming report:New products: MEMS Micro-phones, MEMS based RFID tags,Micro-reaction products, Micro en-

ergy sources, Micro pumps New application fields: Logistics,Ambient intelligence Regional analysis: North America /Europe / Asia / Rest of the World

Task Force core members:Henning Wicht, Chairman, WTC (D) Ayman El Fatatry, BAE Systems(UK), Friedrich Götz, FH Gelsenkirchen (D) Henne van Heeren, EM3 (NL) Jérémie Bouchaud, WTC, (D)

Contact: Henning WichtE-Mail: Henning.wicht@wtc-consult.de

The NEXUS Market Analysis for Microsys-tems III to be Available in Sep 2005

E U R O P R A C T I C E N e w s

231 05

After a difficult year in 2002, causedby a global economic downturn,2003 has shown a promising businessrecovery. This was demonstrated, forexample, by an increase in the totalvalue of quotations by 43% and oforders by 70% (see table below).

The activity of larger companies hasrecovered to the level of 2001 andSMEs continue to be more and moreactive, (see diagram 1). In contrast,since 2001, the turnover from theacademic sector continues to de-crease, due principally to a reductionin the average budget for each pro-gramme.

In Europractice 4, SMEs generate58% of business while large compa-nies account for 36%.

The launch of the Framework 6 pro-gram in 2003 has been reflected inthe results with approximately 6.2 M�of the budget being directedto European Commission fundedprojects. Large enterprises are themost active with Europractice part-

ners in European projects, with only11% involvement of SMEs and 20%from academic partners.

Noteworthy in the ranking of themost proactive countries are theUSA, in third place, with a totalturnover of 5 M�(13.6% of business)and Israel in 7th place. Despite a sig-nificant level of activity in quoting toJapanese companies, the resultinglevel of business remains very low(few k�).

Business with partners from EasternEurope is taking off rapidly. Duringthe first two years of Europractice 4,the total budget was 0.75M�, 90% ofwhich was in 2003. This provides aclear indication that efforts to inte-grate the industrial and academicpartners from the ACC are becomingeffective.

The major European countries areFrance, Germany, The Netherlandsand Norway (with 7%), and the UKand Switzerland.

As in previous years, the biggestdrivers come from the medical, in-strumentation and telecommunica-tion sectors, with an upturn in theautomotive sector in 2004. Businessin the medical and pharmaceuticalsectors has increased by a factor oftwo compared to the three previousyears (from about 6M�to 12M�).

In conclusion: 2003 has been a verygood year in terms of quotations andturnover. The application of Mi-crosystems in the medical and phar-maceutical sectors is increasingly im-portant and the business generatedby ACC partners has taken off.

During Europractice 3, the leverageeffect of the European Commissionfunding was close to a factor 5 onthe Microsystems business. With theeconomic downturn year 2002, thisfactor decreased to 3 but, with thebusiness recovery, the leverage effectwas superior to 5 this year, demon-strating an excellent level of return.

www.europractice.com

2003 - Restart of Microsystems Activity

"Origin of Customer"

"Main industrial sectors"

24

E U R O P R A C T I C E N e w s

1 05

The EuroTraining project is approach-ing the end of its third cycle. In har-mony with the previous two cycles,the main objective of this third phaseof the EuroTraining project has beento provide means to step up the de-velopment of European knowledge inmicrosystems and microelectronics-based components and subsystemstechnology. The Train-the-Trainers ac-tion, a vital component within theproject, supported this objective byproviding dynamic education forthose who teach. Train-the-Trainersaddressed new challenges faced byteachers of electronics technologies. Itwas a response to the call for achange in teachers' competence andthinking, caused primarily by the mul-tidisciplinary and fast-changing na-ture of advancing technologies.

In a first step a gap analysis amonguniversities of the NAS countries wascarried out to determine relevantcourse topics, level and program,course providers and lecturers, sites,etc. The gap analysis showed that therewas a most significant need for cours-es of microelectronics and microsys-tems design, applications and market-ing. It was also discovered that there wasno tradition, even not any example,for the organization of such a high-level intensive course on these topicsin the region. The help of Technologyfor Industry Ltd, experienced Euro-Training Partner from UK, and Vi-sionOnline, another EC-sponsoredproject, was requested to give a goodstart to the Train-the-Trainers action,and to provide a model for the orga-nization of the courses.

The following Train-the-Trainerscourses were provided in four differ-ent NAS countries:1. Microelectronics and Microengi-neering, May 12-16, 2003, Budapest,Hungary.

2. Design Techniques and Tools forLow-Power Digital Systems, December14-18, 2003, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

3.-4. Sensors and Actuators based onMicroelectronics and MEMS Technolo-gy or Design and Complex Characteri-zation of High Performance PCBStructures, two-day parallel courses,May 12-13, 2004, Technical Universityof Sofia, Bulgaria.

5. Microelectronic Sensors and Actua-tors with Biomedical Applications,four-day intensive course, 6-9 Dec2004, Warsaw University of Technolo-gy, Poland.

ConclusionsThe special objective of the Train-the-Trainers action of the EuroTrainingProject, that is to provide knowledgetransfer for the trainers (professors,instructors, teachers) in the Newly As-sociated States (NAS, now called NMSor ACC) of the European Union, wassuccessfully realized. Five intensivecourses, with a total of 17 lecturingdays, in four sites of different NAScountries were provided for altogeth-er 153 attendees, by the contributionof recognized West and East Euro-pean professors.

About 80% of the participants wereyoung academics, active or prospec-tive teachers (PhD students, young re-searchers, post-docs) from NAS coun-tries, who showed very high interestin the new disciplines of microsystemsand MEMS technologies, design tech-niques and tools, microsensors and ac-tuators, biosensors, and the greatmany applications lectured during thefive courses.

The Train-the-Trainers action im-proved European coverage and gavean impetus to the development of Eu-ropean knowledge in microsystemsand microelectronics-based compo-nents and subsystems technology, re-

garding the aspects as follows:

The scientific level, educational andtechnological skill of ca 140 EastEuropean trainers of microsystemengineering was improved by thisEC-sponsored West-to-East knowl-edge transfer action;5 new courses were included intothe EuroTraining Course Directory,all of them with the contributionof NAS lecturers;4 new sites (Budapest, Cluj-Napoca,Sofia, Warsaw), all from NAS (Hun-gary, Romania, Bulgaria andPoland) were touched by the suc-cess of the West-to-East knowledgetransfer;5 new course providers from NASjoined their ca 60 Western counter-parts in the EuroTraining CourseDirectory, namely: Budapest Uni-versity of Technology and Eco-nomics, Politehnica University ofBucharest, Warsaw University ofTechnology, Wroclaw University ofTechnology, and Institute of Elec-tron Technology (Warsaw);12 recognized professors from 7European countries (including 3NAS) were contributing to the suc-cess of the knowledge transfer ac-tion;on the basis of the lectured cours-es, 4 new Distance Learning cours-es were developed and included in-to the EuroTraining Course Direc-tory; most of the lecturers joined the Eu-roTraining Microsystems TrainingService, a new program for thosewho already work on a degreecourse, to combine competences,knowledge and know-how and toshare educational resources.

ContactEuroTraining officeE-Mail: eurotraining@polito.itwww.eurotraining.net

Review of the five EuroTraining Train-the-Trainers Courses

Europractice will have a booth at thisyear's Hanover Fair. The booth willbe shared with the EC-funded Net-work of Excellence "Design for Micro& Nano Manufacture (PATENT-

DfMM)" and will be located withinthe IVAM pavilion at the "Microtech-nology special area", Exhibition Hall15, Booth D 36.

Contact:Patric Salomon4M2C, Germanyinfo@4m2c.com

Europractice at Hanover Fair, 11-15 April 2005

E U R O P R A C T I C E N e w s

251 05

Wireless technologies do more andmore dominate and simplify our dai-ly lives. This development is not onlyrestricted to the well-known applica-tions in consumer markets. 'Wireless'is also a keyword for a multitude oftechnologies and applications in thebiomedical area that improve thequality of life and reduce the costs ofpatient care. Telemedicine and inva-sive monitoring, active implants andcamera pills as well as PDAs for medi-cal information systems are onlysome of the various and very differ-ent examples within this dynamicand fast evolving field in biomedicaltechnology & application.

The multiple and very different wire-less technologies in combinationwith the high demands as well as thevarious risks in development, produc-tion and marketing of biomedicaldevices - such as quality standards,regulations and the differences be-tween the national healthcare sys-tems - do render this field very com-plex and complicated. Multidisci-plinary know-how and international

cooperation is the only way to tacklethis situation.

This is why the Biomedical Compe-tence Centre MEDICS is preparingthe International Cooperation Forumon Wireless Systems for BiomedicalApplications & Devices. The Forum isbased on the well-known and suc-cessful 'one-to-one' concept. Thatmeans, participants have the possibil-ity to select registered organisationsthey wish to meet in a match-makingprocess prior to the event. The goalof the Forum is to establish valuablebusiness contacts between technolo-gy & service providers and users com-ing from R&D and clinical institutes,SMEs and LEs. Therefore, the Cooper-ation Forum focuses on decision-makers in product, technology andR&D management.

Date: 25 - 26 April 2005Venue: Fraunhofer-Institut fürBiomedizinische Technik (IBMT),66280 Sulzbach, GermanyDeadline for registration and ques-tionnaire submission: 4 March 2005

Deadline for the selection of organi-sations you wish to meet: 1 April2005The Forum participation will be limit-ed to 50 organisations.

Registration and further informa-tion:www.medics-network.com/wireless

Contact:Fraunhofer IBMT - MEDICS CoordinationOffice, GermanyAndreas Schneider, Head of MEDICSEmail: medics@medics-network.comwww.medics-network.com

International Cooperation Forum on "Wireless Systems forBiomedical Applications & Devices" on 25 - 26 April 2005

EUROPRACTICE News is provided tomstnews readers by EUROPRACTICEMicrosystems Service for Europe.

EUROPRACTICE is funded by theEuropean Commission DG INFSO E5within the framework of the Infor-mation Society Technologies (IST)Programme.

EUROPRACTICE Programme Manager:Leonello DoriEuropean Commission, DG INFSO C2E-mail: Leonello.Dori@cec.eu.int

EUROPRACTICE News Editor:Patric Salomon4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: ep-news@4m2c.com

For information on specific activitieswithin Europractice, please contactCompetence Centers, Design Housesand Manufacturing Centers directly.Contact information can be found atwww.europractice.com

EP Contact

For the 6th year of operation of theMEMSOI Multi-Project Wafer serviceTRONIC'S reduces the cost of the ser-vice for both commercial and aca-demic organisations in order to facil-itate access to SOI MEMS prototypes.As usual a sliding scale price is of-fered when ordering multiple loca-tions. For each location the customergets 20 dies packaged at the waferlevel.

The 2005 MEMSOI MPW schedule isshown in the following table.

Design guidelines and a Coventordesign kit are available upon re-quest.

ContactTRONIC'S Microsystems, FranceVincent GaffEmail: memsoi@tronics-mst.com

MEMSOI - New Pricing Policy for the MPWService

26

D f M M P A T E N T N e w s

1 05

NoE PATENT-DfMM to accept addi-tional Project PartnersThe EC-funded Network of ExcellencePATENT-DfMM aims to build a newtechnical community to address theproblems of designing Micro & NanoTechnology based products that arereliable, testable and manufacturable.PATENT-DfMM has identified a needfor additional partners in the follow-ing areas:

Design for Testability Packaging of Fluidic based Devicesand Systems Fluidics and Bio-MEMS ReliabilityEngineering

A "Call for new Contractors" isplanned to be published on the pro-ject's website in Jan 2005. The call isscheduled to be open until 28 Feb2005 for proposals from universities,research centres and companies whohave a proven international reputa-tion in the above fields. As the exist-ing partners have committed a signifi-cant resource of their own to the pro-gramme in preparation, negotiationand in-kind support to the objectivesof the project, applicants should clear-ly demonstrate not only what skillsand resources they would make avail-able to the NoE but also what theirinstitute or company will contribute.

Contact:Andrew Richardson, Lancaster University, UKE-Mail: A.Richardson@lancaster.ac.ukwww.patent-dfmm.org

DfMM Training and Business Devel-opment Projects launchedBeing an FP6 Network of Excellence,PATENT-DfMM has a very flexible ap-proach to distribute budgets withinthe project. In an annual (internal) re-view, which is supported by the Indus-try Advisory Board (IAB), priorities forthe next period will be set. Internalcalls for project proposals arelaunched throughout the year.The following internal projects havebeen launched recently:Training Course DevelopmentCourse of MEMS Failure Analysis(IMEC)Course in MEMS Packaging, Mod-elling & Analysis (IZM, IEF, ULAN,HWU, IMEC)Distance Learning Course in MEMSModelling (ULAN)PATENT-DfMM Business DevelopmentAccess Service for MNT based Sensors

(Qinetiq, ULAN, 4M2C). This project will build a concept to ex-tend the Europractice INTEGRAM ser-vice to DfMM and Packaging forminga core dissemination route for thePATENT-DfMM services portfolio.PATENT-DfMM SME SupportApplication of MEMS Test Strategiesto MEMS for Detecting Faults in Air-craft Wiring (ULAN, BCF Designs,HWU). Integration of DfT and test know-howinto a new MEMS device to be de-signed and commercialised by anSME. Success will result in investmentin the NoE PATENT-DfMM.More information is available fromthe PATENT-DfMM websitewww.patent-dfmm.org

Andrew RichardsonPatric Salomon

Industry Partners sought for "Bio-sen-sor Design for Testability Project"This project is running under the NoEPATENT-DfMM WP1 and involvesMESA+ (Twente), LIRMM (Montpelli-er) and Lancaster University. Work hasto date been based around publisheddevices. The team are now lookingfor a good combination point be-tween the design for Testability (DfT)techniques and the specific propertiesof the integrated bio-sensor system togive an appropriate DfT structure andcompensation circuitry to the bio-sen-sor array.We are looking for an industrial part-ner who can provide a demonstratorand a manufacturing route for proto-types. As a result of the project, theindustry partner will receive detailedinformation about the DfT strategiesdeveloped and the project partner'swork.

Contact:Hong Liu, Lancaster University, UKE-Mail: h.liu@Lancaster.ac.ukHans Kerkhoff, MESA+, The NetherlandsE-Mail: H.G.Kerkhoff@utwente.nl

PhD Job Opportunity at LancasterUniversity: Management & Coordina-tion Support OfficerLancaster University is seeking appli-cations from highly motivated individ-uals to join the PATENT-DfMM projectcoordination team that currently con-sists of legal and contract specialists,financial support and overall projectcoordination. Duties would include:

General project management in-cluding monitoring of deliverablesand support to the project man-agement boardBusiness Development includinginvestigation of risk and contrac-tual issues associated with busi-ness models, building inventoriesof skills and expertise and portfo-lio development for the technicalCoordination of funding requestsand support to the universities re-search support office in accountmanagement.

Contact:Andrew Richardson Lancaster University, UKE-Mail: A.Richardson@lancaster.ac.uk

DfMM News is provided to mst-news readers by the project "De-sign for Micro & Nano Manufacture(Patent-DfMM)", a Network of Ex-cellence funded by the EuropeanCommission DG INFSO E5 withinthe Information Society Technolo-gies (IST) Programme of FP6.

The NoE Patent-DfMM aims to es-tablish a collaborative team to pro-vide European industry with sup-port in the field of "design for mi-cro nano manufacture" to ensurethat problems affecting the manu-facture and reliability of productsbased on micro nano technologies(MNT) can be addressed beforeprototype and pre-production.

NoE Patent-DfMM Co-ordinator:Andrew RichardsonUniversity of Lancaster, UKE-mail:A.Richardson@Lancaster.ac.uk

NoE Patent-DfMM News Editor:Patric Salomon4M2C PATRIC SALOMON GmbHE-mail: DfMM-news@4m2c.com

www.patent-dfmm.org

DfMM Contact

27

E U R I M U S N e w s

1 05

Technical Committee and Board la-belling meeting held in Paris on 16th

and 17th December 2004Two proposals were evaluated dur-ing this meeting, viz. EPADMID andSMARTIS. Here are their titles:

EPADIMD (European Platform forAdvanced Active ImplantableMedical Devices) EM91SMARTIS (Smart Thin Films on Alu-mina Substrate) EM95

SMARTIS got the EURIMUS label andEPADIMD will be re-evaluated fol-lowing the request for a technicaladdendum.

Telemarketing actionIn order to promote EURIMUS andspur on the setting up of new pro-jects, a telemarketing action will belaunched at the beginning of 2005.This action will be an opportunity forthe EURIMUS Office to identify newproject ideas or potential futurepartners and, if necessary, help theconsortiums to build up their propos-als (finding partners, checking withthem if the proposals fit the EU-RIMUS objectives, getting in touchwith public authorities, giving advicefor writing proposals, etc.).Two circles will be in the focus forthis action: existing EURIMUS part-ners and potential new partners.Thanks in advance to the people thatare contacted for welcoming the EU-RIMUS collaborators in charge of thistelemarketing action and for answer-ing their questionnaire.

Brainstorming actionDuring the latest EURIMUS Board

meeting, a presentation of the ma-ture technologies available in thefive institutes members of the EU-RIMUS Board was given by each rep-resentative (Fraunhofer IZM (D),CSEM (CH), IMEC (B), CEA-LETI (F)and SINTEF (NO)). The idea was topresent to the industrials Boardmembers the technologies availableto set up new EURIMUS projects. Allthe participants were very interestedin this initiative and some ideas willcertainly generate new projects. Thisinitiative will be re-launched regular-ly and enlarged to all the institutesmembers of EURIMUS.This technical information couldsoon be available on the EURIMUSwebsite to open discussions outsidethe EURIMUS Board and TechnicalCommittee members and then pro-vide new projects.

In the following the EURIMUS Boardcompetence grid:

EURIMUS calls in 2005Warning: New procedure:In this calendar a deadline has beenset for Project Outlines (PO) and FullProject Proposals (FPP) registrations.All the coordinators will have to sendtheir proposals by email to the EU-RIMUS Office for registration a cou-ple of weeks before the deadline forsubmissions (see calendar for dead-lines) expires.

Changes for the fourth call:As mentioned in the latest MST Newsissue, two calls will be launched in2005 (calls 3 and 4). But the secondcall of the year (call 4) will havedates differing from those given ear-lier. Here is the updated calendar:

Technical Committee and Board Labelling Meeting Held in Parison 16th and 17th December 2004

EURIMUS OFFICEPhone: +33 438 78 36 38Fax: +33 438 78 56 70E-Mail: EURIMUS@cea.frwww.eurimus.com

EURIMUS Contact

28

G E R M A N M S T P R O G R A M M E N e w s

1 05

Flexible circuits are gaining ground.Their success is based on the newpossibilities of flexible modelling, ofmaking movable connections, of re-ducing weight and space as well ashigh reliabilities under dynamicstress. These are exactly the charac-teristics required by applications forautomobile and automation technol-ogy, for mobile communication de-vices or medical technology. Acting on this trend, VDI/VDE-IT, incooperation with partners in industryand research, presents the live pro-

duction of a module on a flexible cir-cuit board. The experts of the Fraun-hofer Institute IZM, while demon-strating the assembly line, will ex-plain the special technological condi-tions, specific requirements concern-ing the handling of flex material andcriteria of decision for the use offlexible circuit boards.Four demonstration isles will supportthese presentations, where the capa-bilities and advantages of flexible cir-cuits are shown on the basis of thelatest R&D results and products. Ap-

plications in the fields of logistics,medicine, automation and communi-cations will be on display to repre-sent their manifold uses.The portrayal of the project resultsof the BMBF's "Microsystems" pro-gramme will complete the presenta-tion.For further information about thepresentation, please contact:VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbHLutz-Günter John, Phone: +49 3328 435 158E-Mail: john@vdivde-it.de

Function Follows Form - How to use the Advantages of Flexible Circuits

The development of efficient mi-crosystems sometimes consumes a lotof time and money. Many differentmicro technologies and differentphysical principles have to be inte-grated and brought in line - mostly inhybrid systems. The results are im-mensely capable systems - but mostof the time only after a great efforthas been made.The fastest and most efficient way fordevelopers to achieve their goal isthe use of computer-aided tools forthe design or the simulation of newmicrosystems or their components.These tools allow the best productdesign, because several variants canbe tested in a simple way. The effi-ciency of the designed systems willthus be optimized and their chanceson the market improved significantly.Indeed, small- and medium-sizedcompanies (SMEs) are often not ableto afford this kind of CAD tools, be-cause, especially at the beginning,significant investments, expensivecourses and training for the staff areunavoidable. The support given by the FederalMinistry of Education and Research(BMBF) will enable SMEs to use newcomputer-aided design tools for theirnext project already. Under its "Mi-crosystems 2005" programme theBMBF is allocating 2.5 million Euros,focused thematically on the "first useof computer-aided tools for designand simulation in microsystems tech-nology". SMEs may send in their draftprojects by the end of September

2005. Funding will start at once.Therefore, the sooner the drafts aremade available, the earlier the autho-rization and thus the start of the pro-ject will be possible. Participation islimited to free-market companieswhose annual turnover and balancesheet total do not exceed 40 millionEuros and 27 million Euros, respec-tively and that employ a staff of 250or less. Specific projects for the developmentand advancement of microsystems orcomplex microsystems componentswill be funded. The application ofcomputer-aided design tools notavailable in the company before is re-quired for funding. Introduction andfirst-time use must constitute a signif-icant financial and man-power effortfor the company.The design of microsystems compo-nents and microsystems makes greatdemands on developers and the de-sign tools used. Design aid from be-ginning to end, which is widely prac-tised in microelectronics for example,will not be available for microsystemsin the foreseeable future. But there isa series of tools on the market thatcan be fully used for particular devel-opment phases. If used, they can re-duce the time and cost of develop-ment by a considerable margin.Many of the applicable tools typicallywere first developed for other appli-cations, where they are still predomi-nantly in use. Meanwhile, additionaltargeted developments and model li-braries make them very well applica-

ble to the development of microsys-tems.The BMBF has been funding the ad-vancement of such tools and the im-provement of development processesin SMEs for quite a while. Under theprevious MST programmes SMEswere also supported when new de-velopment tools were employed. Thecooperative project EKOSAS for ex-ample, which ended two years ago, isaimed at eliminating the existingdeficits in the present CAD environ-ment for the design of new Sensor-Actor Systems. Three typical microsys-tems were used to show how toachieve a better design aid by usingadvanced CAD software. One SME forexample developed a positioning sen-sor for dental diagnostics as part of aproject. The company, supported byother partners of this project, wasable to use FEM calculations, systemmodelling and simulation to clearlyaccelerate the design and optimiza-tion of the sensor and to achieve thebest possible development result.

For more information about the maintopic "first use of computer-aidedtools for design and simulation in mi-crosystem-technology", visit:www.vdivde-it.de/foerderung/skizzen/aktuell or the organization execut-ing the project.VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbHRheinstraße 10 B D-14513 Teltow Phone: +49 33 28 4 35 1 01

You can Develop Microsystems More Easily and for Less Money -With the Right Tools

29

G E R M A N M S T P R O G R A M M E N e w s

1 05

China is offering German microsys-tems technology (MST) companiesgreat market opportunities. In theFar East there is a great interestmainly in advanced energy and hometechnology made in Germany. For thesecond time VDI/VDE Innovation undTechnik GmbH is hosting a German-Chinese workshop on "Smart andGreen Building" to facilitate marketentry in China for small- and medi-um-sized companies from Germany.The main focus of the workshop, tobe held in Quingdao on 18 and 19April, will be on "Energy Efficiency".This event will be held under the aus-pices of the Federal Ministry of Edu-cation and Research (BMBF) and theBavarian Ministry of Economy, Infras-tructure, Transport and Technology.For some time now the BMBF andother ministries of the German feder-al states have maintained close con-tacts with administrative bodies (Min-istry of Science and Technology, Na-tional Development and ReformCommission) and different provincial

and municipal authorities in China. Intalks, the Chinese partners showedgreat interest in modern energy andhome technology from Germany.One workshop on "Smart and GreenBuilding" was held in the autumn of2003 in Beijing, in which over 30 Ger-man companies from the fields ofhome and building technology andenergy technology as well as over 100decision-makers from the Federal Chi-nese organisations participated.Given the positive response from theGerman companies as well as the Chi-nese side, contacts should be devel-oped and the cooperation be contin-ued. China is especially interested inmodern technologies for power sup-ply and energy conservation in resi-dential and functional buildings. Theworkshop "Smart and Green Building- Energy Efficiency", to be held on 18and 19 April, will offer German com-panies a platform to present innova-tive technologies in the areas of pow-er supply and power management.

Further information at: www.vdivde-it.de/smarthome.

Workshop Helps German Companies to Enter Chinese Market

MicroTechnologyLeading fair of applied microsys-tems and nano technologies at theHanover Fair11-15 April 2005Hanover

SMT/Hybrid/PackagingSpecialized fair for system integra-tion in microelectronics19-21 April 2005Nuremberg

Events

GERMAN MST PROGRAMME Newsis provided to mstnews readers bythe German Programme Microsys-tems (MST), managed by VDI/VDE-IT on behalf of the German FederalMinistry of Education and Research(BMBF).

Support ProgrammeDr. Lars HeinzeVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: heinze@vdivde-it.de

Accompanying MeasuresAlfons BotthofVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: botthof@vdivde-it.de

German MST Programme News iscompiled by:Wiebke EhretVDI/VDE-ITE-Mail: ehret@vdivde-it.deFax: +49 3328 435 281

Contact

In many microsystems so-called "mi-cro materials", which are powerfulnew materials, are applied. This al-lows cost-efficient manufacturing inhigh numbers. So far, it has been ex-tremely difficult to estimate thelong-term behaviour of such materi-als. No sufficiently exact constitutiveequations and parameters that canbe used in tools for design, simula-tions and tests are known. Therefore,useful estimations concerning the re-liability of microsystems with very

long system life spans (over severalyears) are not possible. This "safetyloophole" has to be closed, becausemicrosystems technology is increas-ingly being used in technology areaswith high safety sensitivity.Under the collaborative projectLONGLIFE optical measuring systemsand evaluation methods for the me-chanic evaluation of material andnetwork characteristics have beendeveloped. The project, started inNovember 2001, was funded by the

Federal Ministry of Education andResearch with 1.35 million Euroswithin the framework of microsys-tems technology funding.The six project partners will presenttheir results to the public on April 21.The presentation is taking place atthe fair SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING2005 in Nuremberg.

Further information at:kuenzel@vdivde-it.de.

Prolonging the Life of Microsystems

Federal Minister Edelgard Bulmahnstarted the new "Microsystems"framework programme one year ago.Funding concentrates on importantareas that may strengthen the inno-vative power of German industry.The Federal Ministry of Educationand Research (BMBF), in dialoguewith the industrial and economiccommunity, has identified six ofthose priorities. Over 70 million Euroswill be allocated to them in the yearsahead. More priorities will soon beidentified.The first six announcements of the

BMBF have met with a positive re-sponse from companies and insti-tutes. The first networks are startingtheir research and development workthese days. 12 collaborative projectswill be launched in the field of "mea-suring and testing technology".Three collaborative projects havebeen granted in the area of "microprocess engineering"; more networksin micro process engineering areforthcoming.Further information on previous andcurrent announcements can be foundat: www.mstonline.de/foerderung.

First Networks Starting Now

30

E U - P R O G R A M M E N e w s

1 05

New Definition of Micro, Small andMedium Sized Enterprises withinthe European UnionThe European Commission has rede-fined the definition of SMEs. Thenew definition will apply from the1st of January 2005 and shall ensurethat the benefit for national and Eu-ropean support mechanisms will beprovided exclusively for those enter-prises "which have the characteris-tics of real SMEs".

Micro-enterprises are classified asenterprises with fewer than 10 em-ployees and a threshold of 2 millionfor the turnover and the balance-sheet total.Small enterprises have between 10and 49 employees and a turnoverthreshold and balance-sheet total ofmax. 10 million .Medium-sized enterprises have be-tween 50 and 249 employees. Theturnover threshold is 50 million andthe threshold for the balance-sheettotal 43 million .

The method of calculating thethreshold is dependent on the typeof enterprise. A definition of thethree types (autonomous enterprise,enterprise with partners and enter-prise linked to another enterprise)can be gathered from the followingpage:http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/n26026.htm

Competitive Call for an AdditionalProject Partner The project "SHIFT", Smart High-In-tegration Flex Technologies current-ly active in the FP6 requires the par-ticipation of a new project partnerto carry out LAP Large area panelprocessing tasks: HiCOFlex (http://www.hightec.ch/in-dex1.html) processes shall be trans-ferred to existing 12" x 12" or 24" x24" facilities. Expansion of LAP pro-cesses to the processing of poly-imide, sputtering and photolitho-graphic processing of conductorsshall be developed. A defined set ofprocess steps shall be carried out. Proposers should possess the infras-tructure necessary.

Expected duration of participation inproject: June 2005 to December 2007Total Commission funding available

is 170.000 for Research activities (es-timated 320.000, to be supported byCommission funding up to 50%) andsmall additional Training and Con-sortium Management activities (tobe supported by Commission fund-ing up to 100%).Date of close of call : March 16,2005.

For further information please con-tact the project co-ordinatorIMEC/INTEC/TFCGJan Vanfleterene-mail :Jan.Vanfleteren@elis.ugent.be

Technology Offers and Requestsfrom the Network of Innovation Relay CentresAn Innovative Device for Determination of Soil MoistureA small Israeli company has devel-oped a new sensor and measuringdevice suitable for determination ofsoil moisture. The device is demand-ed in the agricultural field, particu-larly for determination of wateringtime. The company is looking for in-dustrial partners interested in fur-ther development, commercialisingthe product and bringing it to themarket.

Lightweight, Compact, Low-cost Po-sition & Motion Sensors to ReplaceResolvers, Synchros, etc.A UK company has developed an ac-curate sensor technology to replacetraditional position and motionmeasurement systems with applica-tions in aerospace, machine tools,medical equipment, robotics, etc. Us-ing simple printed circuit boardsrather than the traditional wirewindings - the resulting systems arelight, compact and low-cost. Advan-tages include non-contact, long life,scalability, & flexibility (shape &size). The company is seeking indus-trial partners with volume applica-tions.

Info at: kreibich@vdivde-it.de

IRC Future Match at CeBIT 2005On the occasion of CeBIT 2005, theworld's leading fair for informationand communication technologies,the Information Technologies The-

matic Group of the Innovation RelayCentre Network will organise thebrokerage event IRC Future Match. Itaims at helping exhibitors and visi-tors to the fair to find partners inEurope for technology-orientedpartnerships. Companies, universitiesand research institutes in the ICT sec-tor are invited to use this unique op-portunity to establish new cross-bor-der contacts for future collabora-tion.

Participation in the event is free ofcharge. Participants will only have topay entrance to the fair. IRC FutureMatch 2005 takes place in hall 9,stand C21 within the future parc.

For further information, pleasecontact:

Marion Laue, University of Hanover,E-Mail: ml@tt.uni-hannover.de

Demo Day at the International Conference "Advanced Microsys-tems for Automotive Application2005" in BerlinThe Innovation Relay Centre North-ern Germany, represented byVDI/VDE-IT, invites all interested par-ties to attend their demonstrationday of advanced Microsystems in au-tomobiles. On the 16th of March,the day before the start of the 9thAMAA in Berlin, you will have thechance to test different pre-crashsystems, pedestrian protection sys-tems based on laser and radar, lanekeeping and lane recognition warn-ing systems. 10 cars from providerslike IBEO, Conti, A.D.C., Aglaia, Uni-versity of Ulm, Bosch, Daimler-Chrysler, Audi and Toyota will be atyour disposal for testing.

The demonstration day starts at 10a.m. and lasts until 6 p.m.Participation for attendees of theconference and for the press is freeof charge.

Info at:Jürgen Valldorf: E-Mail: valldorf@vdivde-it.de orwww.amaa.deFor press accommodation, pleasecontact: Miriam Kreibich E-Mail: kreibich@vdivde-it.de

31

M N T - E r a N e t - N e w s

1 05

The success of a European mobilisa-tion reached through the extension-requires the collaboration of the re-search and industrial community froman early stage. For this reason, theconclusions of the strategic activitiesamong agencies (workpackage 2 ofthe project) have been to let the Re-search Community be the protagonistof the Joint Activities (WP3).How can we integrate this bottom-upapproach into the Eranet scheme? MNT-Eranet proposes a well-knownmechanism: these are the Expressionsof Interest (EoI).The EoIs will provide the initial glueto link national and regional MNTprogrammes with research actors,safely and fast:

Sizing of the clustering exercise is apowerful management tool forgovernments, providing key sce-narios and parameters for long-term national commitments. Collaboration will be based on realprojects, real sharing of efforts andrights between participants.Projects will be brought to their at-tention from year 2, but fundingdecisions may be taken a step laterin order to invest on solid bases.Barriers will be faced and over-come against a practical contextand timings.

However, a European joint initiativefor EoI in 2005 in the field of microand nano technologies requires a cer-tain coaching from the respectiveagencies in order to tune expectationsand work commitment from the re-search actors.

The challenge is twofold. On one hand, preserving the proximi-ty of companies and other researchactors to the national or regionalagency.

On the other, providing a progressivepath that will act as a "stair of Euro-peanization" for them that will addnew partners, contacts, opportunities,and will also require some new proce-dures.

To achieve this target, MNT-Eranetplans the WP3 of EoI in two stages:

PHASE 1: LOCAL Workshops. To beheld the first half of the year, an-nouncing the Eranet plans to re-search actors and demandingshort-term action of local EoIs tocollect the best ideas and needs.They will be performed by eachagency, with a crossed participa-tion of at least 2 extra agencies,and with an open character for Eu-ropean partners. The result of the

action will be the collection ofthese EoIs per agency.PHASE 2: EUROPEAN action. Thetarget will be to coach a concentra-tion process, enlarging the Euro-pean cross participation of the bestEoIs:o The MNT-ERANET web will be

available for consultation andinteraction of these EoIs, exist-ing and new participants.

o Each agency will present thersum of opportunities and pro-jects demanded by its country orregion.

o An internal workshop will assignresponsibilities by topics or areasto agencies, and will provide afirst management look at thebasics of the collaboration.

These events are planned for the second half of the year.

And the results of this WP3 will be:

The launching of the first joint callof MNT projects in 2006.Crossed participation of interna-tional partners in local nationalcalls in 2005.

Contact:Peter Hahn, hahn@vdivde-it.de

MNT ERANET Faces Joint Activities among European National Programmes

After six month of searching andpreparing we used the ERA-Net callin October to expand our MNT ERA-Net and add additional countries tothe existing consortium. The Added Value of the Extension tothe original MNT ERA-NET projectwill be:(i) doubling the geographical cover-age, (ii) introducing new complemen-tary MNT subjects, (iii) embracingnew EU Member States and (iv) in allof these ways significantly expandingthe scope for transitional cooperationbetween programmes and pro-gramme beneficiaries, i.e. the sup-ported firms and research organisa-tions.The geographical scope of MNT ERA-NET will approximately double. Theinitial 8 participating countries will

become 16. The number of participat-ing programmes will increase from 8to 21. A further 2 countries and 1 re-gion will participate as "AssociatePartners". This expanded geographi-cal coverage will significantly increasethe scope for transnational coopera-tion at both the programme and pro-ject (beneficiary) level.

The extension will also introduce newMNT subjects that strategically com-plement the thematic coverage ofthe original project. Particularly im-portant in this regard are pro-grammes with a strong focus on spec-ifying and developing the processand product technologies that will beneeded to support the widespreadfuture application of MNT.Half of the new partner countries are

new EU Member States. Their partici-pation will add multiple values to theproject:

Learning in programme designand management at a time whenmost of the new Member Statesare rethinking their R&D and tech-nology policiesIntegration into a European pro-gramme cooperation framework,and consequentlyAccelerated development in thearea of MNT as a result of en-hanced learning and cooperationopportunities.

A first meeting with all partners tookplace in Vienna in mid-January.Results of this meeting will be pub-lished at www.mnt-era.net. For more information:reinhard.zeilinger@ffg.at.

A Fundamental Expansion of the MNT ERA-NET

32

A S S E M I C N e w s

1 05

IntroductionMicrohandling and microassemblyare innovative research areas whichimpose challenging requirements. Inorder to prepare the new generationof researchers working in this field,special training schemes are needed,adapted to its multidisciplinary andintersectoral character. The European Research and TrainingNetwork "Advanced Methods andTools for Handling and Assembly inMicrotechnology ASSEMIC" will ad-dress this need at the Europeanscale, by providing advancedtraining for early-stage and ex-perienced researchers in a 4-year collaborative research pro-ject with 14 participants from10 different countries. Micromanipulation techniquescan include not only handlingof microcomponents for assem-bly of MEMS, but also applica-tion fields and challengingtasks. Some examples are mi-crosurgery, manipulation of bi-ological material and micro-robotics. One of the aims of thisproject is to explore and devel-op new methods, tools and ap-plications for micromanipula-tion beyond the limits of tradi-tional assembly techniques formicrocomponents.

Learning by doing: ASSEMIC'S Re-search DimensionThe project is structured in severalwork-packages, defined to addressthe following main research objec-tives: ultra-precision positioning, in-novative tools for handling and as-sembly, advanced control methods,application requisites and industrialproduction. A brief description of theworkpackages' content is given be-low:WP 1. Micropositioning: Positioningstages and elements with integratedsensors and feedback control, au-tonomous and mobile systems, micro-robotics.WP 2. Microhandling: Developmentand test of tools and methods forhandling in different environments(normal room conditions, cleanroom, vacuum, fluids) and applica-tions

WP 3. Microassembly: Innovativetools, special strategies and alterna-tive approaches for efficient highprecision and microassemblyWP 4. Automation for industrial pro-duction: Including production chains,quality assurance, test and characteri-zation issues, etc.WP 5. Know-how management:Technology transfer and dissemina-tion

Table 1 PROJECT PARTNERS

Training OpportunitiesEarly-stage fellows participating inthe ASSEMIC network will have theopportunity to receive training in anumber of disciplines (artificial intel-ligence, material science, process con-trol, vision systems, etc.) which arerelevant to both MST and other areassuch as information technologies andproduction engineering. In this way,the range of possible choices fortheir professional career will bebroadened thanks to the opportunityof selecting from a wider variety ofpotential working areas and thus in-creasing their professional success ex-pectancies.

ASSEMIC will provide a cohesive butflexible framework for the trainingand professional development of thefellows, especially in the early stagesof their career. The network as awhole will provide a minimum of 574person-months of Early Stage and Ex-

perienced Researchers, whose ap-pointment will be financed by thecontract. Measures intended to ad-dress training and transfer of knowl-edge will be divided into individualand network-based measures.

1) Individual measures will be:- Basic training at the host institu-tion: Training in available technolo-gies and with specialized instru-ments, performance of experiments,basic skills such as preparation of pre-

sentations and redaction of tech-nical reports and publications- Secondments and visits to othernetwork partners. - Other individual training activi-ties: Courses, tutorials, contactwith and visits to industrial oper-ations and SMEs, participation inexternal conferences, etc.

2) Network-based measures areas follows: - Summer schools: Organized ev-ery year by FSRM exclusively forthe network, the fellows will betrained by internal and externalinternational experts with regardto microhandling and mi-croassembly topics- Training workshops - Open seminars: Organized by

the academic partners for studentsand interested early-stage re-searchers on topics related to micro-handling and microassembly

Significant synergy effects are alsoexpected with industry. The networkASSEMIC has an important industrialcomponent. Links with industrialcompanies have already been estab-lished and are expected to be ex-panded through a series of dissemi-nation and technology transfer activ-ities.

AcknowledgementThis Project has been funded by theCommission of the European Com-munity, Contract no MRTN-CT-2003-504826

Contact:Werner.Brenner@TUWien.ac.atProject Coordinatorwww.assemic.net

The FP6 Marie Curie Research Training Network "Advanced Methodsand Tools for Handling and Assembly in Microtechnology - ASSEMIC"

M I N A E A S T - N E T - N e w s

33

Coordinator: National Institute forResearch and Development in Mi-crotechnologies, Romania

We are continuing the presentationof MINAEAST-NET partners.

Institute of Physical Electronics ofKaunas University of Technology(Lithuania) - IPE (http://www.fei.lt) The Institute of Physical Electronicsof the Kaunas University of Technol-ogy was founded in 1994 and in 2003was reorganized into the Indepen-dent Institute, having the status of aUniversity Institute. IPE takes part inthe Eureka project, the science pro-gramme Gillibert, the Nordic EnergyResearch Program, and the NATO Sci-ence Programme - Cooperative Sci-ence and Technology. IPE is one of the main organizers ofthe International Conference -School "Advanced materials andtechnologies", which takes place inPalanga, Lithuania, every year.The main research activities of IPE in-clude nanotechnology (thin films,surface engineering, nanostructuresand nanomaterials) and optical docu-ment security.

Currently, IPE is employed in the de-velopment of polymeric nanocom-posites, nano-imprint lithography,ion beam synthesis of carbon nanos-tructures, investigations of high-power micro-electromechanicalswitches.

Prof. Sigitas TAMULEVICIUS is the Di-rector of the Institute of PhysicalElectronics of the Kaunas Universityof Technology, Lithuania. Prof.Tamulevicius has experience in inter-national projects, he is an expertmember of the Lithuanian Academyof Sciences, winner of the NationalAward of Science for 2001, memberof the European Materials ResearchSociety and FP5 and FP6 expert.

Sabanci University (Turkey) - Micro-electronics Program (http://micro.sabanciuniv.edu)The main principles of action for theMicroelectronics Group at SabanciUniversity are the following: Assum-ing a leadership role in certain ar-eas/technologies; Establishing andmaintaining strong ties with indus-try; Maintaining strong collaborationwith international partners; Dissemi-nating expertise/educating industrialpartners; Encouraging the develop-ment of commercial products/appli-cations.

Research areas of the Microelectron-ics Group are:" Microelectromechanical Systems:

design, modelling, simulation andfabrication of silicon-based MEMS

for different applications; acceler-ation sensors, pressure sensors,chemical sensors, ultrasonic trans-ducers, infrared sensors, RF-MEMS.

" Very Large-Scale Integrated Cir-cuits/Systems (VLSI) Design andTechnology: Analyzing, designing,simulation and testing of semicon-ductor devices and VLSI for differ-ent applications; Analog, Digital,and Mixed Signal VLSI Circuits,Modelling and Simulation of Semi-conductor Devices.

Associate Prof. Yasar GURBUZ(yasar@sabanciuniv.edu) is the coor-dinator of the Microelectronics Pro-gram at Sabanci University, Facultyof Engineering & Natural Sciences.He obtained his BSc. in Electrical En-gineering at Erciyes University,Turkey, MSc. and PhD in ElectricalEngineering at Vanderbilt University,TN, USA. Areas of Interest: Sensorsand actuators, analogue ICs, MEMS,modelling and simulation of semi-conductor devices, wide bandgapsemiconductors.

MINAEAST-NET

Specific Support Action from FP 6 (2004-2006): MIcro- and NAnotechnologies going to EASTern Europe through NETworking" (MINAEAST-NET)

MIcro and NAnotechnologies goingto EASTern Europe through NETworkingEU Contract no.: 510470 (SSA in FP 6)Project coordinator:National Institute for R&D in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest)Contact persons: Project coordinator Prof. Dan Dascalu (dascalu@imt.ro)Project Vice-Coordinator Dr. Carmen Moldovan(cmoldovan@imt.ro)E-mail contact: net@imt.roPhone: +40 21 490 82 12 or

+40 21 490 84 12Fax: +40 21 490 82 38 or

+40 21 490 85 82Web page: www.minaeast.netSpecial presentation of this projectin MST News and MNT Bulletin(www.imt.ro/MNT)

MINAEAST-NET project

On the MINAEAST-NET projectweb page (www.minaeast.net), aDatabase for partner matchingand expressions of interest for CallIST - 4 in FP 6 may be accessed. Al-so Databases for Research centres(either independent or au-tonomous from the scientific pointof view, i.e. labs from universitiesand even institutes), Internationalprojects and Specialists are avail-able at the same address. One mayaccess databases related to the-matic research fields, as defined inthe on-going call in PC 6.

Figure 1: Microelectromechanical switch madeat IPE

Figure 2: 25% PS - 75% PMMA nanostructuredpolymer bend on crystalline silicon (100) sub-strate -IPE project

34

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

IntroductionThe development of connection/join-ing techniques meeting requirementsat the microscopic scale, in particularsmall joining geometry with high pre-

cision, is still a challenge. Beside tech-nical requirements, economic aspectscall for new techniques which aresuitable for highly reliable automatedprocesses. In general adhesive bonding offersvarious advantages compared withother joining processes. Machine ex-penditure is quite small. The compo-nents that can be added are not ex-posed to a considerable thermal loadduring the joining process if the sys-tem is not warm-cured. In the curedcondition the joint offers a high struc-tural strength. Depending upon re-quirements, further functions can beintegrated into the joint. Here mainlythe possible electrical and thermalconductivity or isolation is required.Adhesive ApplicationA central problem in MST production

is applying the necessary very smalladhesive quantities. An adhesive dropof 1 nl takes a diameter of 356 µm be-tween two joining parts with a layerthickness of 10 µm [1]. That meansthat dosing equipment suited for mi-cro bonding must be able to dosewithin a range from several hundredpico-litres to nano-litres, so that thegeometrical dimensions of the jointdo not become larger than the micropart. If the joint is to be in the dimen-sion of e.g. only 10 µm (layer thick-ness adhesive likewise of 10 µm), thevolume that can be dosed amounts toonly 1 pl. By using viscous systems,currently a range from several pico-litres is, however, the border of whatis technically feasible related to thevolume that can be dosed. I.e. by thedefault of the dosage system the min-

Adhesive Joints for MEMS Using HotmeltsStefan Böhm, Klaus Dilger, Elisabeth Stammen, Jürgen Hesselbach and Jan Wrege

This paper presents an alternativeadhesive system holding out thepromise of joining very small partsas well as joining relatively bigparts with high accuracy require-ments. The main advantages arethe possibility to apply small vol-umes, to pre-apply the adhesivewith a temporally delayed joiningprocedure and extremely short setcycles. Therefore, using hotmeltscan be a technologically and eco-nomically interesting alternativefor the assembly and packaging ofMEMS.

process. Each of the 4 electrodes surrounding one micro hole is con-nected to a high-voltage source andcan be controlled individually to gen-erate an attractive electrostatic forcebetween the electrode and thegrounded fibre. This will move the fi-bre towards the electrode. A fibre tracking system is used to de-termine the actual fibre position in re-spect of its desired final position. Byincluding this tracking system and thevoltage generators into a closed loopalignment system, the fibre can bemoved to its ideal position inside thehole. This ideal position can either bedetermined by the maximum mea-sured output from a light source towhich the fibre is to be aligned or the

absolute distance from the other fi-bres in the fibre array. Once the fibresare in their respective desired posi-tion, UV light can be applied to selec-tively cure the glue in one micro hole.By applying the closed loop align-ment throughout the hardening pro-cess, a movement of the fibre due totensions induced by the glue can beminimised. This method reducesequipment and human labour re-quirements, and still remains the ca-pability of moving fibres to their opti-mum position.

ConclusionWe have shown that the proposedmethod of electrostatically induced fi-bre actuation allows precise position-ing of single mode optical fibres andthe fabrication of two-dimensional fi-bre arrays. An array for 4x4 fibres was producedand its functionality tested. Plans toincrease the array size are currentlyunder investigation.A patent application for this technol-ogy is currently on its way [1] and in-quiries by parties possibly interestedin a potential collaboration are wel-come to contact the main authors.

AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to acknowl-edge the financial support of theBritish Engineering and Physical Sci-

ences Research Council (E.P.S.R.C.)through the Basic Technology Pro-gramme "A thousand micro emittersper square millimetre". Grant num-ber: HWU 0240 R21 100006.

References[1] M. P. Y. Desmulliez, G. Romano,

and T. YI, "Fibre Alignment Jig andMethod of Fibre Alignment usingElectrostatic forces," H. W. Univer-sity, Ed., G02B 6/06 ed. UnitedKingdom, 2004.

Contact:Dominik Weiland, Marc DesmulliezMISEC, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh,EH14 4AS, United Kingdom Phone: +44 131 451 3783E-Mail: dw16@hw.ac.uk

M.Desmulliez@hw.ac.uk

Figure 1: Microholder for single fibre producedin collaboration with IMM-Mainz

Figure 2: Microholder array for 4x4 fibres, 16 mi-cro holes in the centre surrounded by 64 con-nection pads to contact each electrode individu-ally.

Continuation from page 17

35

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

imum volume and minimum joininggeometry are limited. In the literaturethe size is described within the rangeof a minimum of 100 µm and volumesin the range from 100 pl [2, 3, 4].

Alternative Adhesive SystemsAdhesives based on hotmelts haveproved to be a promising alternativeto viscous systems. An important ad-vantage of hotmelts in relation to vis-cous adhesive systems is - particularlyin microsystems engineering - the pos-sibility of being able to pre-apply hot-melt systems. The joining proceduredoes not have to take place directlyafter applying the adhesive to thesubstrate; this can happen at any timelater on. This is an important basis forthe use of adhesive bonding in abatch process. The possibility to pre-pare multiple parts in advance andjoining the parts simultaneously in abatch process is economically very in-teresting. The adhesive is only meltedduring the bonding process by a ther-mal impulse and moistens the surfaceof the other substrate. During suit-able heat guidance hotmelts set veryfast, i.e. a handling strength (usuallythe ultimate strength) is clearlyachievable in less than one second asattempts have shown.Hotmelts can be applied as adhesive

ball, laminar in powder form or asfoil, figure 1.

Production of suitable adhesive ge-ometriesCommercially available hotmelt pow-der on a PA basis was particularisedthrough filters or by sighting in grad-uated grain fractions between 2 µmand 63 µm. In bonding experimentsthese grain fractions were applied tothe substrates as powder directly orprocessed before into adhesive ballsor foils. Manufacturing balls tookplace on teflon in hot-air furnaces.For this, particles were applied isolat-ed to teflon and warmed up in thefurnace to fusing temperature. As aresult of the surface tension of theadhesive and the small surface energyof teflon, a contact angle of approxi-mate 180° between the adhesive andthe teflon surface arose and the hot-melt particle became a ball, figure 2.

Manufacturing sequence in batchprocessBonding experiments were carriedout in a clean room with the help of acommercial robot for micro assembly.After gripping from a magazine theadhesive (ball, foil) was positioned ona substrate and warmed to the melt-ing temperature of the adhesive, fig-ure 3.

Afterwards the robot placed the ad-herent on the pre-coated hot melt ad-hesive. The adhesively bonded adher-ents were removed from the plateand due to the decreasing tempera-ture the hotmelts sets.

ConclusionsSince July 2004 our work has beenpartly supported by the German sci-ence foundation in the context of theCollaborative Research Center 516"Design and Manufacturing of ActiveMicro Systems". Furthermore thetransfer of initial research resultsstarted in co-operation with industrial

partners. The results of the work wereso convincing that a patent was ap-plied for the procedure of microbonding described above.

AcknowledgementsThis work is partly supported by theGerman science foundation (Collabo-rative Research Center 516 "Designand Manufacturing of Active MicroSystems"). The authors would like toexpress their thanks.

References[1]Dilthey, U.; Brandenburg, A.;

Müller, M.: Kleben von Mikrokom-ponenten, in: F&M, Band 107, Heft4, S. 78-80, Carl Hanser Verlag,Mnchen, 1999

[2]Bauer, G.: Peristaltische Mikrop-umpe PUMPE2, in: InfobörseMikrosystemtechnik - Informa-tionsreihe der VDI/VDE-Technolo-giezentrum InformationstechnikGmbH, Band 25. 2002.

[3]Gesang, T.; et al.: Fine-Pitch-Dis-pensen: Klebstoffe auf den Punktgebracht, in: Kleben & Dichten,Band 42, Heft 11, 1998

[4]Hartwig, A.; Dring, M.: Kleben mitkleinsten Klebstoffmengen. in:Adhäsion - Kleben & Dichten,Band 40, Heft 7, S. 31 33, 1996

ContactStefan Böhm, Klaus Dilger, Elisabeth StammenIFS - Institute of Joining and WeldingTechnical University of BraunschweigE-Mail: s.boehm@tu-bs.de

Jürgen Hesselbach, Jan WregeIWF - Institute of Machine Tools and Pro-duction TechnologyTechnical University of BraunschweigE-Mail: j.wrege@tu-bs.de

Figure 3: Manufacturing sequence of adhesivebonding in batch process

Application of adhesive in powder formand punctual melting by the use of lasers

Application of adhesives in foil form

Discrete application of adhesive balls

Figure 2: Hotmelt balls, diameters approx. 20 m

Figure 1: different methods of preapplying hot-melts

36

A S S E M B L Y A N D P A C K A G I N G

MEMS operation requirementsMicrosensor packaging is one of themost important and challenging tech-nology areas. In particular, hermeticpackaging on wafer level is a keytechnology of many microelectrome-chanical systems (MEMS). The hermet-ic sealing protects them from harmfulenvironmental influences, significant-ly increasing their reliability and life-time. In addition some MEMS need aspecific gas or pressure environmentwithin the package to function asspecified, see table 1. This article in-tends to give an overview on the rele-vant technological topics to producehermetically sealed, micromachineddevices on wafer level with controlledcavity pressures ranging from 10-4mbar to 1000 mbar.

Wafer-level processes are particularlyinteresting for MEMS packaging sincethey can reduce fabrication costs andopen up possibilities for batch pro-cessing. Various wafer level sealingtechnologies may be used, includingwafer bonding, cavity sealing by thin-film deposition, and reactive sealing.The present article focuses on eutecticAuSi wafer bonding to produce low-cost and long-term reliable hermeticMEMS packages.

Figure 1 shows the main functional el-ements of a surface micromachinedMEMS device with integrated getterfilm in the cap.

Beside maintaining vacuum, encapsu-lation on wafer level solves the prob-lem of device protection during waferdicing operation. The improved ro-bustness of capped devices allowsMEMS devices to be handled in exist-ing standard semiconductor backendprocesses.

AuSi eutectic bonding AuSi eutectic bonding is a technologyusing eutectic formation at 363°C be-tween a silicon wafer and gold de-posited on another silicon substrate.The bond temperature used is in therange of 380-400°C. This is compatiblewith Al device metallisations. Due tothe liquid melt formed, this technolo-gy tolerates wafer topography com-ing from previous processing opera-tions. The technology is also compati-ble with extended outgassing cyclesand the activation requirements incase a deposited getter layer is pre-sent in the device cavity. Compared toglass frit bonding, AuSi eutectic bond-ing does not outgas during the waferbonding cycle, and requires only verysmall bond frame widths, typically inthe range of 60 - 100 µm. This increas-es throughput, which is a major pa-rameter for low-cost production.

Getter technology The use of Non Evaporable Getter(NEG) material (Zr based alloy) is re-quired to ensure suitable vacuum (to-tal pressure under 1x10-3 mbar) andlong-term stability in MEMS devices.NEG can chemically sorb all active gas-es, including H2O, CO, CO2, O2, N2and H2. The main constraints imposedby device design and process are thecompatibility of the getter with thefabrication process, the thickness ofthe getter film and an activation tem-perature compatible with the bond-ing process. Besides this, SAES Getterslaboratories offers a patterned depo-sition of the getter material on thecap wafer by a proprietary technolo-gy: PaGeWafer .

The thick getter film can be selectivelyplaced into the cavities without af-fecting the lateral regions of thewafer where the hermetic sealing is

to be performed. The typical patternlateral dimensions are in the millime-tre range, while the getter film can beplaced in the cavities with any depths,ranging from a few microns to hun-dreds of microns. Figure 2 shows theprecise deposition of the getter mate-rial inside the cavities.The getter film consists of a special Zralloy, whose composition is optimizedto maximize sorption performance orto maximize performance in specificsealing or bonding processes.

Cap wafer cleaningWafer cleaning of the cap wafer isusually required before bonding toremove organics from the gold bondframes. The getter layer must toler-ate the cleaning chemistries. It hasbeen discovered that a caustic chemi-cal treatment of the getter film bothcleans the film and enhances its per-formance without measurable degra-dation of its structural integrity. Forexample, caustic chemical treatmentSC1 with NH40H/H202/H20 and SC2with HCl/H202/H20 did not affect themorphology and the sorption capaci-ties of the getter film and significant-ly increased the sorption capacity,measured under ASTM standard F 798-82. The getter film at wafer level can alsowithstand treatment with a highly ag-gressive HNO3 process up to 65%@120°C. The full compatibility of thegetter film towards both temperatureand chemical treatment with regardto the activation and capacity of thegetter film is demonstrated. Typicalabsorption speed and absorption ca-pacity of the patterned getter filmper unit area at room temperaturefor hydrogen and carbon monoxideare reported in Figure 3.

High-Vacuum Wafer Bonding TechnologyAuSi eutectic wafer bonding with integrated getter thin film for long-term stable high vacuum

Wolfgang Reinert

Table 1: Required vacuum level for differentMEMS.

Figure 1: MEMS construction with getter.

Figure 2: PaGeWafer , cap wafer with depositedgetter layers.

37

A S S E M B L Y A N D P A C K A G I N G

Getter activationThe getter film is supplied in a stable,passivated form to protect the getterand to ensure that it performs asspecified. The PaGeWafer can besafely handled in clean room air. Oncethe getter film is in a vacuum or noblegas environment, it needs to be acti-vated. Activation is achieved by apply-ing thermal energy to the getter todiffuse the passivation layer into thebulk, rendering the surface of thegrains chemically active and ready topump contaminants out of the MEMSpackage.

Getter film activation can be achievedthrough three main scenarios:1. The classic scenario is activation of

the getter as part of the waferbonding process. The temperaturesunder vacuum reached in thebonding process will simultaneousactivate the getter as well as bondthe device and cap wafers. In thiscase, the getter film will also im-prove process conditions by achiev-ing a higher vacuum between thetwo wafers in the cavity.

2. The second scenario is to applyheat to the cap wafer after bonding

3. The third scenario is first to heatthe cap wafer under vacuum andthen align the wafers and bondthem.

BackfillingTo realize a defined gas damping forresonating sensors, a gas-filling proce-dure has to be established. Only inertgases or gases that do not consumethe getter or alter the getter sorptionperformance may be backfilled in thedevice cavities. Most often Argon isselected because of good dampingcharacteristics and low out diffusion.The backfill operation is typically one

step in the waferbond cycle. Figure 4shows the dependencyof the device Q-factoron cavity pressure fora typical BOSCH typeyaw rate sensor. Thecavity pressure can betuned to any value be-tween 10-4 mbar and1000 mbar; even over-pressure is possible de-pending on the waferbonder infrastructure.

Hermeticity testingThe pressure inside of the vacuum en-capsulated devices depends on theoutgassing of the inner surfaces, theleakage rate through fine leaks andpermeation through the walls, seefigure 5. The outgassing dependsmainly on the fabrication process ofcap and device wafer, which has to beoptimized. Fine leaks arise from imperfect bond-ing or crack initiation. The pressurechange per unit time in a device canbe expressed as

dP/dt L / V

where L is the leak rate and V the cav-ity volume of the device. Typical cavi-ty volumes range from 0.1 mm³ toaround 5 mm³. Since fine leaks may always be pre-sent a leak test is necessary to guaran-tee a leakage rate that is smallenough to be compensated by thegetter. This leak rate may be calledthe critical leak rate, as it defines thedevices within the statistical cavitypressure distribution that fail the firstafter the guaranteed lifetime is ful-filled. As an example: for a devicewith a life time requirement of 15years and internal vacuum require-

ment better than 0.1 mbar and a get-ter capacity of approximately 1.7x10-5mbar l per cavity the maximum toler-able leakage rate for a cavity volumeof 0.26 mm³ is 3.6x10 14 mbar l/s. Dueto high Helium permeation in Si andsilica, a long-term stable, high vacuumbetter than 10-4 mbar is very difficultto achieve. Fraunhofer ISIT has developed an in-line, ultra-fine leak test on wafer levelto determine the leak rate of everysingle resonating device before ship-ping out. This ultra-fine leak testovercomes the limitations of He andKr85 fine leak test and is compatiblewith integrated getter and unaffect-ed by the typically very small cavityvolumes. Critical leak rates down to10-16 mbar l/s can be determinedwithout interference between neigh-bouring devices.

ConclusionsIn respect of process yield, a eutecticwafer bonding technology with a liq-uid phase of > 1 µm thickness willconsiderably improve the tolerance ofthe bonding process in terms of sur-face topography and bond frame im-perfections (scratches, particles). Acap wafer cleaning procedure withSC1 and SC2 was found to be very ef-fective to achieve good bond homo-geneity, and at the same time evenimproves the getter sorption capacity.It is not recommended to apply Ar ionmilling or backsputtering to any ofthe used wafers. PaGeWafer can as-sure high performance MEMS sensors,thus considerably increasing the de-vice lifetime by maintaining the Q-factor of the device while relaxing thestringent requirements for minimumleak rates.

AcknowledgementsThe members of the VABOND projectFraunhofer ISIT, Saes Getters, ST Mi-croelectronics, Thales Avionics, EVGroup, and university Pavia gratefullyacknowledge the project funding bythe European Commission (IST-2001-34224).Please visit also: www.vabond.com

Figure 5: Effects degrading cavity pressure.

Figure 3: Sorption characteristics for H2 and CO per cm2 of getter filmafter SC-1 and SC-2 treatment

Figure 4: Dependency of the Q-factor vs cavitypressure [N2] for a typical surface microma-chined renonator.

38

A S S E M B L Y A N D P A C K A G I N G

Why LT wafer direct bonding?Direct wafer bonding is an estab-lished technology for many applica-tions in MEMS and substrate engi-neering. It is also the only one front-end compatible wafer bonding pro-cess with high volume capabilities.The standard process consists of a)cleaning, b) room temperature bond-ing and c) high temperature anneal-ing. For cleaning DI, water andmegasonic power are utilized justbefore the bonding process. Bothprocess steps can be performed inone tool without additional handlingwithin about 2-3 min. The annealingstep, typically a batch process, is re-quired to increase the bond strengthwithstanding the following processeslike thinning (mechanical, chemical)and dicing. The very high annealingtemperatures (~1100°C) in the an-nealing processes of directly bondedwafers however created some tech-nological problems and therefore re-strictions in applications in the past. To overcome the problem a surfaceactivation before bonding is re-quired. SUSS MicroTec`s nanoPREP

technology is thenew approach foreffective surface ac-tivation of materialsused in MEMS andthe Semi Industry.

Features of ambientpressure plasmananoPREP is an am-bient pressure plas-ma process, devel-oped in cooperationwith FhG and MPI inGermany. The tech-nology is based onthe dielectric barrier discharge (DBD)principle, widely used in other indus-tries and optimised for the treatmentof semiconductor wafers. The activeplasma is limited to a long but nar-row area (Fig.1). A uniform treat-ment is achieved by scanning of thesubstrate. Control of the process gas,generator power and some other pa-rameters guarantee a stable process.The generator delivers an AC voltagein the range of 20kHz.

The nanoPREP technology was re-alised in a commercially availabletool: the NP200. The NP200 is astand-alone system with manualloading. Integrated modules in a ful-ly automated bond cluster were re-cently installed in field. All wafersizes up to 300mm as well small chipscan be processed.

With respect to the CoO, thenanoPREP technology has some ben-efits compared with low-pressureplasma systems. Very short time ofdown to 10 seconds for one scanningpath process characterises the pro-cess. The complexity of the technolo-

gy is minor, the processwindow wider. The in-vestment costs are mi-nor due to the lack ofvacuum technology.

Effects of ActivationThe surface propertiesare modified by theprocess in the range ofa few Angstrom. Typicalprocess gasses are N2 or

O2 mixtures resulting a very hy-drophilic surface (Fig.2). AFM mea-surements showed reduced RMSroughness after the treatment. Noadditional particle contaminationwas measured at appropriate pa-rameter settings. Results of a metallictrace analysis match the SEMI specifi-cations.

The bond energy and yield are themost important criteria of waferbonding evaluation. A yield up to 100% of samples withtest structures (50-500µ) was anal-ysed by Fraunhofer. Bond energiesup to the bulk material fracture limitcan be achieved.

ChallengesThe versatility of material requiresthe development and optimisationof the process to the applications. An interesting field of investigationis the SiO2 deposition withnanoPREP. Direct bonding of Pyrexwith Si was demonstrated as a realalternative for Anodic Bonding andneeds to be proven in terms of yieldand hermetic seal properties.

ContactMarkus Gabrielm.gabriel@suss.dewww.suss.de

AP Plasma Activation for MEMS Wafer Direct BondingMarkus Gabriel

Within the five basic processes ofwafer bonding (anodic, thermo-compression, direct, eutectic andadhesive) many variations are ap-plied in MEMS, micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems (MOEMS) andadvanced wafer-level packaging.The choice of a bonding methoddepends on the initial substratesand the final application. New de-velopments enable direct waferbonding with subsequent anneal-ing at moderate temperatures ex-tending the potential for new ap-plications, not compatible withother bonding processes.

Figure 1: A principle of an ambient pressure plasma system

Figure 2: Contact angle measurements of plasma treated wafers

39

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

The International TechnologyRoadmap for Semiconductors pre-dicts continuing development to-wards smaller geometries, higher fre-quencies and larger chip sizes. How-ever it is pointed out that the tradi-tional path of downscaling togetherwith material innovation is no long-term solution for the performancerequirements due to interconnectproblems [1]. 3D Interconnects enabling chip stack-ing offers an approach to verticallyconnect two integrated circuits forthe purpose of shortening the wiringdistance between them. This technol-ogy enables increasing levels of inte-gration, which enhances perfor-mance and functionality, reduces sig-nal time delay and extends band-width while reducing cost, size,weight and power consumption [2]. Aligned wafer bonding is a wafer-to-wafer 3D interconnect technology.Two fully processed wafers arealigned and bonded face-to-face.The top wafer gets thinned down toa thickness of a few microns or be-low, and high aspect ratio vias areetched through the backside of thethinned wafer to provide verticalelectrical connections between thetwo wafers. The electrical connec-tions have a length of only a few mi-crons, which enhances the perfor-mance of the devices dramatically.This process sequence can be repeat-ed several times (Fig.1). Heterogeneous subsystems likeCMOS and memory, mixed signal orbipolar (RF) devices sometimes re-quire highly different, worst-casenon-compatible, processing steps.Aligned wafer bonding allows pro-cessing of the different functionalsubsystems on separate wafers,thereby reducing the complexity andnumber of process steps greatly. 3D interconnect applications requirewafer-to-wafer alignment accuracyin the low-micron or sub-micronrange. The established alignmentmethods developed for MEMS pro-duction have very limited usabilityfor 3D integration. High concentra-tions of dopants and metal layerslimit the usability of IR alignment.Backside alignment keys cannot be

used for CMOS applications, as thewafers are generally single-side pro-cessed. A new method, the SmartView®face-to-face alignment, allows align-ment keys of both wafers within thebond interface. The SmartView® sys-tem employs two dual microscopeswith identical optical axes. One mi-croscope is placed above and theother below the wafer stack. Firstthe microscopes are centered on thekeys of the bottom wafer, then thetop wafer is positioned according tothe microscope position (Fig.2).

Wafer alignment is accomplished us-ing encoded stage motors allowing Xand Y movements in increments of0.1 µm steps. Wafer bonding for 3D integration iscompatible with conventional back-end-of-line processes allowing subse-quent back thinning, inter-wafer in-terconnections etching, dicing andpackaging. The best-investigatedwafer bonding techniques for 3D in-terconnect applications are Cu-Cuthermocompression bonding and ad-hesive bonding. The advantage ofthe Cu bonding technique is that thebond pads directly connect the twodevices electrically and thermally.Thereby the process steps for viaetching and connecting of the twodevice layers are avoided. The advan-tage of adhesive bonding is that therequired specifications for wafer sur-face properties and cleanliness arerelaxed as any particulates are em-bedded in the adhesive layer.Modern integrated wafer alignmentand bonding systems allow automat-ic cassette-to-cassette operation ful-filling the requirements for high vol-ume manufacturing (Fig.3).

References:[1] ITRS 2003[2] J.-Q. Lu et al., "Dielectric adhesive

wafer bonding for back-endwafer-level 3D hyper-integration",Proc. ECS, Honolulu, Oct. 3-8, 2004

Contact:Thorsten Matthias, Paul LindnerEV Group, DI Erich Thallner Strasse 1, A-4780 Schärding E-Mail: T.Matthias@EVGroup.comwww.EVGroup.com

Advances in Aligned Wafer Bonding for 3D Interconnect

Thorsten Matthias and Paul Lindner

Figure 1: 3D Interconnects through alignedwafer bonding

Figure 2: SmartView® alignment principle

Figure 3: GEMINI® fully automated productionbond system with SmartView® alignment andmultiple bond chambers

40

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

Today the "classical" electronic andsensor-related manufacturing processsteps are moving closer together. Newtechnologies such as "System in Pack-age - SiP" or "Molded InterconnectDevices - MID" combine a variation ofdifferent technologies like screenprinting, die bonding and / or surfacemount technologies. The demands forcost reduction and the increase in thefill factor and functionality of thepackages drive this movement. It is well-known that the package of aMEMS device creates about 70 to 80%of total production cost today. Thetechnologies mentioned earlier forthe first time allow a significant re-duction in the costs of MEMS packag-ing and thus create the possibility fora real step into cost-optimized massproduction of Microsystems. The lat-est example is the mass production ofthe micro cameras for mobiletelecommunication applications. To-day the total costs of such camerasamount to approximately two Euros.New technologies have the potentialto reduce cost by factors. To under-stand this statement, the process flowof typical cell phone cameras in pro-duction today is described (Figure 1).One can realize that there are a vari-ety of technologies to be adjusted toeach other to ensure an optimizedproduction.In a first step the CMOS sensor andAsics will be assembled. Therefore oneor more chips are bonded into a cavity(substrate). Next, using a wire bonder,the electrical connections are created.Finally an IR absorbing glass has to beattached onto the cavity for contrastenhancement and contamination pro-tection. This package is called a cavityCMOS sensor.

Up to this step the whole process isextremely sensitive to contaminationby particles. One can easily imaginethat even smallest particles inside thepackage will cause malfunctioning ofthe whole sensor module.To address the contamination prob-lem, equipment manufacturers createa clean environment in the processarea. Since this approach covers onlypart of the problem, the contamina-tion of the chip prior to chip handlingand the chip handling itself are ex-tremely critical. Thus, these types ofmachines need an actively controlledair flow through the whole machine.Alphasem, the market and technologyleader for CMOS sensor bonding, ad-ditionally offers the unique approachof vertical handling of wafers insteadof typical horizontal handling, whichis used today. Thus, even the few pre-sent particles have almost no chanceto hit on the sensor surface. In terms of cost-optimized production,one can imagine that the combinationof the CMOS chip bonding and IRglass attachment on one hand andwire bonding, as a complete differenttechnology, on the other hand are ex-tremely critical. Successful fab designsin the Asian Pacific area in most casesfollow a strategy of creating technolo-gy islands. Thereby process steps areclustered and optimized. Alternativesolutions, such as inline production,where all machines are arranged inone line, assembling the completeproduct fully automatically, in mostcases exhibit significant problems inyield and availability. This is mainlydue to the complexity of linking total-ly different equipment together. Notmentioning the difficulties of theclean room layout, since the cavity as-

sembly typically is in class 100condition, while the follow-ing process steps will takeplace in class 1,000 to 10,000.The following assembly stepsare significantly differentfrom CMOS sensor assembly.Here a combination of sur-face mount and fine mechan-ical assembly technology is re-quired (Figure 3).Typically this part of assembly

starts with an attachment of the lensholder onto the CMOS sensor. If notalready assembled in a next step, thelens barrel will be screwed into thelens holder. Finally the optics has tobe adjusted and fixed. Since the pro-duction of the low-cost modules is al-most completely located in the AsianPacific area, the automated equip-ment has to offer a significant costand performance advantage overmanual assembly. Thus, today in most cases dedicatedassembly equipment such as Al-phasem's Flexline (Figure 4) is in-stalled. Common to these platformsare high flexibility and moderate in-vestment costs. The flexibility is de-fined by two parameters. On the onehand, by the possibility of the integra-tion of third-party tooling and, on theother hand, by the possibility of beingre configurable during a given prod-uct change. Thus it is important forthis type of equipment to offer stan-dardized interfaces for an easy andfast integration of third-party tooling.An example of such a customizedtool, a gripper for pre-assembled lensholder handling is shown in Figure 5. Having such cells in operations it iseasy to adapt a variety of processsteps to meet the needed throughputof the assembly line. It is thereforepossible to start with one cell for R&Dand split the process steps over a num-

Back-End and Assembly Production of Cost SensitiveMicrosystemsChristian Ossmann

Figure 2: Alphasem "Swissline"

Figure 1: Process flow towards an assembled micro camera Figure 3: Cross Section of Micro Camera on Flex

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

41

Micro- and Nanotechnologies for Advanced PackagingKarl-F. Becker

Microelectronics miniaturization hasevolved according to Moore's lawsince the mid-sixties and over theyears it has always been possible tofollow its prediction without meet-ing fundamental technological lim-its. This might be in question for fu-ture applications, where the SIAroadmap indicates a red brick wall

ber of cells as soon as the volume in-creases.Today the final steps of tuning thecamera by calibrating the position ofthe lens barrel and fixing it at the bestposition are mostly manual or semi-automated operations. The drawbackto fully automated solutions in thecell phone camera assembly is the lev-el of salaries in Asia, mainly China.

Since the manual workspace for suchan operation is available at low cost,highly flexible for new products and

the throughput created by the opera-tors in the range of 100 to 150 piecesper hour, dedicated equipment canhardly compete. While increasing thequality of the optics and increasingdemands on adjustment and testing,automated equipment will play a sig-nificant role in the future. Thus, theneeded tools are under developmentand will be released into the marketsoon.The process steps to assemble a microcamera described so far are close tothe "classical" assembly of cameras.This technology is limited in terms ofthe achievement of cost improvementand fill factor. As a result, a numberof groups worldwide are working onconcepts for new assembly methods,closer to MEMS technologies. One ap-proach is the MID technology - Mold-

ed Interconnect Devices (Figure 6).The goal is to provide a pre-manufac-tured package including all optical,electrical and mechanical features.This can be achieved by a combinationof molding and deposition tech-niques. Using a standard die bonder,the CMOS sensor chip will be bondedon top of the electrical interconnectsby flip chip technology. As a result, aneasy-to-handle SMD type device hasbeen created. Especially if one consid-ers the tolerance budget, this ap-proach is very promising for low-costproduction.

Contact:Christian OssmannBusiness Unit Manager MicrosystemsAlphasem AGPhone: +41 71 637 6373E-Mail: Ossmann.C@Alphasem.com

Figure 5: Lens gripper (Schunk)

Figure 6: MID Camera Module (Image is cour-tesy of Matsushita)

Figure 4: Assembly Cell "Flexline"

for the further development of mi-croelectronics without fundamental-ly new approaches.These new approaches towards mi-croelectronics as single atom andCNT based transistors all benefitfrom nano-science and technologyto target a maximum integration onchip level, leading to increased in-

Advertisement

terconnect density and thus to aminiaturization of the individualcontact. Parallel to this miniaturiza-tion of interconnects, the develop-ment of an adapted packaging tech-nology is necessary to provide reli-able interconnects from the nano-and microscale to the meso-world,where microsystems are used.

42

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

Roadmap Predictions for PackagingTechnologiesThe demands towards the packagingof advanced micro- and nano-systemsare described in the 2004 update ofITRS for Assembly and Packaging,where experts identify the demandsfor system packaging for the next 14years. [1] The recent update focusespackaging needs on three main top-ics:Difficult challenges - Closing the gapbetween continuously decreasing chippitch and stagnating package pitch,Packaging of MEMS, of nanostruc-tured systems and of emerging tech-nology devices.Material challenges - Development ofmaterials stable at high temperatureand matching lead-free requirements.Development of dielectrics for embed-ded passive and active componentsPackaging cost challenges - Develop-ment of cost effective packaging tech-nologies that cope with increasingmaterial cost and matured packages.

Advanced Packages, possibly betterdescribed as System In Package (SiP),integrate more than one die and op-tionally sensor functionality, bus or RFinterfaces, passive components andgeometrical features as media ductsand alignment structures for addition-al component attach. This allows shar-ing packaging cost with a largeramount of functionality compared tosingle chip devices. As outer packagegeometry often Area Array configura-tion is selected, leading to BGA, CSPor QFN package types.According to ITRS, the following speci-fications will be true for the next gen-erations of System in Package. SiPswill contain both embedded passives& embedded actives; there will be upto 5 dies in a stack and up to 6 dies ina package. From 2010 the I/O countfor digital signals is estimated to be2000, for RF 200. Small BGAs / CSPs intheir various geometries will be the

dominating package type, with pitch-es from 200 µm in 2006 down to 150µm in 2012 and 100 µm in 2016. Mois-ture sensitivity level (MSL) for thesepackages will decrease from today'sMSL of 3 to MSL 1 from 2010.For short-term applications in systempackaging, the specific task is to closethe gap between chip and substrate,implicating research on:

Low-cost embedded passives: R L CMaterial and process solutions foroperation temperatures up to200°CInterconnect density scaled to sili-con (silicon I/O density is increasingfaster than the package substratetechnology)Production techniques adapted tosilicon like production and processtechnologies after 2005

As possibilities are limited to reach theambitious technological and economicgoals of the packaging roadmaps withexisting technologies, it is assumedthat future progress will be driven byfurther developments in micro- andnanotechnology.

Technological approaches towardsMicro/Nano IntegrationSystem integration at the micro- andnanoscale includes various technologi-cal options that need to be addressedin the future, sometimes introducingradically new process flows.

System AssemblyMaximum system optimization can beachieved by merging the technologi-cal areas of components and infras-tructure, i.e. housing, leads, alignmentstructures, as function integration isthe key for maximum miniaturization.Micro and nano systems of the futurewill contain subsystems and compo-nents that com-prise functional struc-tures at the nano-scale with a need tointerconnect these to a micro scale.An example for a state-of-the-art con-tact element in the lower µscale is de-picted in figure 1. As an example, this10 µm wide bump can be used for ul-trathin interconnects for miniaturizedmicro systems. Future systems willdrive miniaturization further, intro-ducing 3D integration at the submi-cron scale, yielding e-grain like struc-tures [2].

Building Blocks - ComponentsConventional system assembly is using

discrete components that are com-bined by pick and place, yielding afunctional system. Targeting miniatur-ized nano systems it is necessary tomaximize system size reduction byfunction integration. For this ap-proach, a precise definition of compo-nents and interfaces is crucial, typicalcomponents are:

µProcessorsPower SupplyActuatorsPassive DevicesSensorsDisplays

Depending on future developments, itis possible to integrate the realizationof the above-mentioned componentsaway from dedicated fabrication sitesinto the back-end area, e.g. by simul-taneously generating printed leadsand integrated resistors. Near-term re-alization of this integration will bepossible especially for passive devices,sensors and displays taking benefit ofprogress in polymer electronics withthe functionality defined at the nanoscale [3].

Building Blocks - InfrastructureFor system integration using nanoscale functionality, it is necessary toprovide interconnection and protec-tion for the components used. Theseinfrastructural components includeelectrical, optical and RF interconnectson the one hand; on the other handthe realization of substrates and con-ductive structures, of external inter-faces (alignment structures, mediaducts, optical interfaces) and of pro-tection/encapsulation for the systemgenerated. Today's state of the art in-cludes the use of materials with inte-grated nano functionality (see Fig. 2)[4] and for chip interconnects the use

Figure 2: Nano-enhanced encapsulant -Nanoscale filler particles help to tailor materialsCTE

Figure 1: Interconnects for Nano Systems -Bump with 10 µm width for low profile, finepitch interconnects

A S S E M B LY A N D PA C K A G I N G

43

of carbon nano tubes [5] or nanostructured interfaces, as the Au basednano-lawn for low-temperature inter-connects for example [6].

Integration Technology- ManufacturingWith components and subsystemsavailable, the challenge of micro andnano system manufacturing is to es-tablish the most efficient processchain of placement, joining, coating,structuring and interconnection. Possi-ble manufacturing technologies forminiaturized systems are largely de-pendent on the geometry of the com-ponents/subsystems. As a near-termstrategy to integrate discrete compo-nents in the µm scale, the followingmeans might be applicable:

Parallel Pick and Place, using e.g.advanced AFM tools as IBM's Milli-pede conceptSelf-Assembly using liquid, magnet-ic, electrostatic, geometric meansor a combination thereof

For the realization of infrastructuralelements, most likely the followingmeans might be adapted to the needsof nano system assembly:

CVD/PVDLiquid Coating as dipping, spraycoating, spin coating and jettingLithographyGalvanic Material DepositionField assisted structuring especiallyutilizing non-linear behavior underoverlayed electrical, optical oracoustical fields

For the long-term estimation of theintegration of nano scale functionalbuilding blocks into system assemblyprocess flow, it is of vital importanceto know the nano technological man-ufacturing technology. One optionare scenarios comparable to today'sfront-end manufacturing with maxi-mum demands towards the environ-ment. Processing is conducted in a dryatmosphere, typically using PVD andCVD processes. Another option, atleast for selected process steps, is pro-cessing in liquids; this has beendemonstrated e.g. by Whitesides [6].Using such carrier liquids is reliablypreventing electrostatic charging ofnano particles and also prevents in-halation of potentially hazardous par-ticles. Potential carriers are aqueoussolutions or organic solvents; systemintegration might take place in micro

reactors, where components form sys-tems by self-assembly processes.

Analytics and ModelingWith further miniaturization the anal-ysis of systems at the nanoscale willgain more and more importance, es-pecially cost-effective analytical solu-tions for manufacturing process con-trol. Know-how on interface analyticsis needed for the successful realizationof reliable nano systems. For model-ing, interfacial behavior as well as adetailed knowledge of the behaviorof nano-enhanced materials are cru-cial for an optimized descrip-tion ofmicro/nano systems.

Design of Micro/Nano-SystemsDesign tools available for system gen-eration are adapted to the meso- andmicroscale, taking into account manu-facturability with state-of-the-artequipment. For nanoscale systems,these approaches have not yet beenadapted. The fundamentally newworking principles of nano technolo-gy do not allow simple scaling of ex-isting technologies; research will beneeded to integrate e.g. quantum ef-fects into system design.

ConclusionA large contribu-tion of micro andnano technologyis seen for the fur-ther evolution ofpackaging tech-nology; actually,most of the obsta-cles predicted bystate-of-the-artroadmaps forpackaging tech-nology can onlybe solved usingnano technologi-cal means.Amongst all semi-conductor-basedresearch, the im-portant contribu-tion of packagingto a successful sys-tem in packagerealization shouldnot be underesti-mated.

References[1]International Technology Roadmap

for Semiconductors: 2004 Updateon Assembly and Packaging

[2]H. Reichl; The eGrain system - usingfine electronic particles; Fraunhofermagazine, 1.2002

[3]www.polyapply.org[4]M. Werner, B. Michel, H.-J. Fecht

and N. Meyendorf, Applicationsand Challenges of Nano- and Mi-cromaterials for Microsystems, mst-news 04/04, pp. 5-9

[5]W. Hoenlein et al., Carbon nan-otube applications in microsystems,IEEE Trans Comp. Packag. Vol. 27,No. 4, pp. 629-634, Dec. 2004

[6]S. Fiedler, Nano-Bio-Packaging -Ansätze, Chancen und Trends Teil I. P.L.U.S. (Produktion von Leiter-platten und Systemen) 2004 / 81169-1178; Teil II Ibid. 1362-1368

Contact:Karl-F. BeckerFraunhofer IZM BerlinPhone: +49 30 464 03 242Fax: +49 30 464 03 254E-Mail: becker@izm.fhg.de

Advertisement

44

E V E N T S

SchauPlatz Nano

After having beenpresented for thefirst time duringthe trade fair

MATERIALICA 2004 in Munich, theshowcase Nano will be a new attrac-tion of MicroTechnology. Additional-ly the "nanoTruck" of the GermanFederal Ministry of Education andResearch (BMBF) will be situated di-rectly outside the hall. Visitors of thefair have the opportunity to learnmore about applications and solu-tions in the area of nanotechnology,presented by a number of exhibitorsfrom industry and research withinone focused area. Contacts can bemade and intensified in the integrat-ed showcase-lounge. More informa-tion on the showcase Nano can befound at www.schauplatz.de/nanoworld.

IVAM pavilion

The largest boothof MicroTechnolo-gy in hall 15 isagain being or-ganised by IVAM,comprising more

than 30 exhibitors, mostly SMEs. Avisit to this pavilion covering an areaof over 500 square metres will givean excellent overview of industrialand research activities in the area ofmicrotechnology in Germany.

VDI/VDE-IT presents MST Germany

The manifoldness ofindustrial and re-

search structures in conjunction withmicrosystems technology in Germanywill be the main feature to be pre-sented at the booth of VDI/VDE-IT(hall 15 / D 52). Germany offersunique opportunities to carry out re-search, to transfer research results in-to industrial products and services,and to interact with players of all rel-evant disciplines in a very easy way.The challenge however, especiallyfor foreigners, is a suitable naviga-tion within this complex community.This is an important service VDI/VDE-IT can provide, giving assis-tance in finding the right partnersfor microsystems technology re-search, exploitation and application.

Due to its broad integration into theEuropean Research Area and specificprojects in FP6, VDI/VDE-IT addition-ally can provide services for Germanactors looking for partners in foreigncountries.

Educational issues of microsystemstechnology have become a key issuefor further successful implementa-tion and growth of the industrial sec-tor of microtechnology. VDI/VDE-IT,being involved in a number of dedi-cated initiatives and activities, cangive assistance to young people plan-ning their future as well as to organi-sations beginning to set up, or al-ready carrying out, education pro-grammes.

Additionally, the status and new top-ics for specific calls of the BMBF-Microsystems Technology FrameworkProgramme, providing nationalfunding for RTD projects, will be presented.

And last but not least, MicroTechnol-ogy offers the chance to personallymeet the staff of mstnews.

Micro production live

Organised by VDMA, the GermanEngineering Federa-tion, problems andsolutions of micro

productioncan be ex-periencedwithin alivedemonstra-tion, show-ing an automated production ofstents, based on an existing industri-al application (hall 15 / booth D 35).Specific times will be scheduled,where experts will in detail explainand present the various process stepsand their integration into an auto-mated production line.

Ultra-precision manufacturing

NC Gesellschaft e. V.is presenting theirpavilion on ultra-precision manufac-turing (hall 15 / D 50)for the fifth time.

Tool and mould manufacturers willshow practical examples concerningthe utilisation of ultra-precision tech-nology for the production of highlyminiaturised products. Technologieslike micro milling/turning, ultrasonicmilling, micro injection moulding,and others will be in the focus.

MicroTechnology FORUM

Under the motto"Innovations forIndustry" DeutscheMesse AG andIVAM in 2005 willagain be staging aspecial forum. In

2004 more than 60 presentations bymicrotechnology users and suppliersof microsystems from industry show-cased the latest products and provid-ed a glimpse of the future at the Mi-croTechnology trade fair.

This year topics will range from posi-tioning tasks in the micro range tointelligent RFID systems or nano-porous coatings: informative topicsfor suppliers from all branches. Mi-cropumps for the mass markets,masks for wafer level packaging ormulti sensor systems: MicroTechnolo-gy is the one and only fair that cov-ers all these disciplines and chal-lenges in miniaturisation within aone-stop shop.

MicroTechnology at 2005 Hanover FairMicroTechnology will open its gatesin Hanover on April 11-15 (09:00-18:00) this year (hall 14/15), in con-junction with 10 other trade fairs,covering sectors like factory and in-dustrial automation, research andtechnology, industrial subcontract-ing and services, energy, and manymore. MicroTechnology is the No. 1 tradefair for all aspects of microsystemstechnology, micro-assembly and mi-cro-optics, as well as the fast-grow-ing discipline of nanotechnology inEurope. Underlining the message"small is beautiful", approx. 250 ex-hibitors will present innovationswith multiple applications and solu-tions ready for production.

For exhibitors of MicroTechnology,participation with a presentation willbe free of charge. Registrations willbe dealt with according to the "firstcome, first served" principle. Pleasecontact Verena Hingst at IVAM im-mediately to find out about presen-tation times still open for booking (verena.hingst@ivam.de, phone +49 231 9742169).

Funding opportunities for R&D projects

On Friday, April 15, VDI/VDE-IT willbe organising an information day onGerman national and Europeanpremises for funding of R&D projectsthat will take place at the MicroTech-nology FORUM. The German Mi-crosystems Technology FrameworkProgramme, the EUREKA Initiatives,and the 6th Framework Programmeof the EU will be covered.

In the morning, several lectures willspotlight the different programmes,their status and the future outlook,and experience gained during thepreparation and execution of specificprojects.

In the afternoon, the FORUM willturn into a consultancy centre. Ex-perts from the EU, the German Na-tional Contact Point for microsystemstechnology, the EUREKA/COST officeof the BMBF, of the Innovation RelayCentre (IRC) North Germany, and fi-nally experts for the German nation-al Microsystems Technology Frame-work Programme will be offering in-dividual consultation meetings (20min.) free of charge. For participa-tion, advance reservation is required,all information can be ordered andreservations made by contactingThomas Köhler (Koehler@vdivde-it.de, phone +49 3328 435149).

Helmut Kergelkergel@vdivde-it.de

45

E V E N T S

46

PA N O R A M A

mstnews and VDI/VDE Innovation +Technik GmbH congratulate Prof. Reichl on his 60th birthday, wishinghim happiness in his personal lifeand good health so that he may con-tinue with his dynamic and creativeway.Prof. Reichl is an expert of world-wide repute on Microsystems Tech-nology. Since 1987, when assuming achair at Berlin's Technical University,he has been head of the researchgroup on "Technologies of Micrope-ripherics". Starting in 1993 he was in-strumental in setting up the interna-tionally renowned Fraunhofer Insti-tute for Reliability and Microintegra-tion (IZM).From his early days in Berlin Prof. Re-ichl, together with his team, hasbeen closely involved with the Feder-al Republic of Germany's projects

and objectives related to Microsys-tems Technology, whether in his ca-pacity as a highly welcome partnerto cooperative projects run by indus-try or as an appointed member ofthe national panel on MicrosystemsTechnology.His record of scientific achievementshas been recognized worldwide,winning him awards and docu-ment-ed by numerous patents and publica-tions.His creativity, his expertise as a scien-tist and his foresighted approach,which equally reflects techno-logicaldevelopment, economic require-ments and social needs, have madehim a stimulating interlocu-tor forVDI/VDE-IT, which has been asked bythe Federal Ministry of Educationand Research to flesh out innovationpolicy.

We are grateful for having Prof. Re-ichl as a partner and are looking for-ward to conducting with him an in-teresting exchange of ideas in futuretoo.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. E.h. Herbert Reichl Celebrates his60th Anniversary

Advertisement