Anodic bonding

Originally developed in the late 1960s, anodic bonding, also known as electrostatic bonding, field-assisted bonding or Mallory bonding, has become one of the most important silicon packaging techniques. Despite its industrial relevance the bonding mechanism is mainly only qualitatively understood and is almost solely applied to the bonding of silicon to Pyrex glass. The objective of the present paper is to review the current state of knowledge of the anodic bonding process. Possible material combinations and current scientific and industrial applications of this bonding technique are reviewed. The various aspects of the bonding process, such as the creation of intimate contact, the cation movement in the glass and the interfacial chemical reactions, are discussed in detail and related to the external current measured during bonding to describe the bonding process quantitatively. A better understanding of the process itself should help not only to improve the process control and the quality of devices, but also to broaden the application of this successful bonding technique to more challenging designs, to smaller device sizes and to systems other than silicon–Pyrex glass.