Apparatus for bonding wafers and an optically-transparent thin film made from the same
US10948653B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 19, 2020 |
| Grant date | Mar 16, 2021 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 19, 2040 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01L2224/80013
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A novel apparatus for bonding of two polished substrates includes a plasma source in a ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber and a wafer-guiding element to control and guide wafers in the UHV chamber, where after a plasma activation process the wafers are guided and pressed against each other to form a covalent bond between wafer surfaces. The plasma activation process involves deposition of mono-layer or sub-monolayer metallic atom on the surface of substrates. After deposition of metallic layers, a high-force actuation presses the wafers and forms a covalent bond between the wafers. Then, the bonded wafer pair is ion-sliced or thinned to form single crystalline optical thin film. An annealing process oxidizes the deposited metallic layers and produces optically-transparent single crystalline thin film. An optical waveguide may be fabricated by this thin film while utilizing an electro-optic effect to produce optical modulators and other photonic devices.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.