DRAFT_SPECIFICATIONS.pdf

DRAFT ONLY-SPECIFICATIONS

Wafer Bonding System

Background:

The wafer bonder will be used in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Boulder Microfabrication facility (BMF) for integration of different material platforms. This includes, but not limited to, direct bonding of Si-based to Si-based wafers/deposited films (SOI wafers, SiO2, and SiN), group III-V with Si, Anodic bonding of glass to Si, fusion bonding of Si to Si and group III-V to group III-V materials. This tool will facilitate such integration while achieving high quality interfaces to realize numerous devices with optical and electrical functionalities. It will be impossible or very hard to achieve such defect-free interfaces with conventional material deposition/growth techniques. This tool is of great interest to many groups at NIST Boulder including Quantum Nanophotonics Group in the Applied Physics Division, Quantum Sensors Group in Quantum Electromagnetism Division, and Optical Frequency Measurement and Atomic Devices and Instrumentation Groups in the Time and Frequency Division.

Minimum Specifications:

Below are the specifications for the wafer bonder and bond alignment system. NIST has determined that it cannot compromise on these specifications or the experiments cannot be completed.

Wafer Bonding System Requirements:

1. Wafer bonder shall be capable of room-temperature (25°C), plasma activated direct bonding of Si-to-Si, Si-to-SiO2, SiO2-to-SiO2, SiN-to-SiN, SiO2-to-SiN, Si-to-GaAs, and GaAs-to-GaAs. The plasma activation of the wafers will be provided by a separate tool that is already in the NIST/Boulder cleanroom.

2. This tool shall be capable of high-temperature fusion bonding of group III-V to Group III-V materials at elevated temperatures of at least 600°C.

3. Shall be capable of aligned wafer bonding and must come with a dedicated sample aligner with 3 alignment accuracy of 2 m. The wafer bonder must ensure that the aligned wafers do not move more than 1 µm when transferred from the aligner to the bonder. The wafer stack fixtures and aligner should be designed so that the wafer alignment doesn’t change by more than 1 µm during transfer from the aligner to the bonder and during bonding.

4. The wafer bonder shall come with all the required tooling, parts, and wafer fixtures to support various sample sizes of 1 cm x 1 cm pieces to 50.8 mm, 76.2 mm, 100 mm, and 150 mm wafer sizes.

5. Shall come with 4 gas input lines and mass flow controllers (MFCs) for process gasses. Our required process gasses are Ar, N2, He, and N2+H2

6. Shall provide up to 20 kN force for bonding.

7. Wafer bonder shall have a spring-loaded center pin to provide a wafer bow to generate a bond wave for direct wafer bonding

8. The wafer fixtures shall have spacer flags in between two wafers in the bond stack. These pins must be automatically removed from the stack upon the initial contact of the two wafers for successful, void free bond.

9. Shall include the power supply for anodic bonding, applying 2000 V at 5 mA current.

10. Shall operate in vacuum environment, achieving the chamber pressure of < 1x10- 5 mbar.

11. Include any adapters (if necessary) to allow operation with wafer thicknesses between 250 - 1000 um.

12. The wafer bonder shall be controlled by a Windows 10 based computer and a graphical user interface. A Windows 7 PC is acceptable if the Vendor provides update for Windows 10, when it is available.

13. Shall be compatible with class 100 cleanroom environment

14. Both the wafer bonder and the bond aligner shall come with full-service warranties of at least 12 months from the acceptance date.

15. Both the wafer bonder and bond aligner shall include installation at the NIST/Boulder cleanroom and include a minimum of 8 hours of training.

16. Only new tools are acceptable. No refurbished, used, or remanufactured systems are acceptable.

17. The vender shall demonstrate at least five (5) similar units operating in the field and provide three (3) references to NIST.

Delivery:

The Vendor shall deliver a Wafer Bonding unit and a separate Bond Alignment unit plus all accessories and tooling required to meet the above specifications. The complete system shall be delivered to NIST, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80305, not later than 22 weeks after receipt of order. If factory inspection is mutually agreed upon by NIST and the Vendor, then this factory inspection shall be not later than 20 weeks ARO. Delivery terms are FOB Destination.

Installation:

The Vendor shall install the entire system in the NIST cleanroom located in Boulder, Colorado. The installation must take place within 2 weeks after the instruments have been delivered to the NIST Boulder campus. The Vendor shall provide NIST with the utility requirements within 5 business days ARO to ensure that NIST will have the required utilities in place for installation.

Testing and Acceptance:

The system shall demonstrate the following capabilities:

1. Direct bonding of Si to Si wafers

2. Direct bonding of Si to GaAs wafers

3. Direct bonding of GaAs to SiO2

4. Direct bonding of: SiO2-to-SiO2, SiO2-to-SiN, and SiN-to-SiN

5. Anodic bonding of Si to glass

Items 1-4 will utilize a plasma activation tool that is already installed in the NIST/Boulder cleanroom.

The bond quality shall be tested with an infrared inspection camera, and the bond energy will be measured with the crack opening method. The measured bond energy shall be equal or above 1.5 J/m2. Bonding, inspection and testing will take place at the NIST/Boulder Microfabrication facility during installation, training, and tool acceptance periods.

NIST will prepare all of the required samples for testing prior to the installation of the wafer bonding and alignment system. Any testing not performed during the installation and training period will be performed by NIST personnel within 5 business days after the completion of training.

The bond aligner performance will be tested by aligned-bonding of two double-side-polished Si wafers with pre-etched alignment marks. The alignment marks shall be consistent with the Vendor’s requirements and specifications. The bonded stack will be inspected with an infrared imaging system, and the alignment accuracy will be measured with respect to micron-scale, patterned rulers on the wafers. The bond aligner will be accepted if the measured inaccuracy is equal or smaller than 2 µm.

Warranty:

The standard warranty shall include all parts, labor, and travel to ensure that the system meets the required specifications. All warranty service requests that require a Vendor engineer or technician to go to NIST/Boulder shall occur within 3 business days after notification by NIST/Boulder personnel. The warranty period shall be a minimum of 12 months.

Security:

There are no unique security requirements.