Electric current characteristic of anodic bonding

In this paper, a novel current–time model of anodic bonding is proposed and verified experimentally in order to investigate underlying mechanisms of anodic bonding and to achieve real-time monitoring of bonding procedure. The proposed model provides a thorough explanation for the electric current characteristic of anodic bonding. More significantly, it explains two issues which other models cannot explain. One is the sharp rise in current when a voltage is initially applied during anodic bonding. The other is the unexpected large width of depletion layers. In addition, enlargement of the intimately contacted area during anodic bonding can be obtained from the proposed model, which can be utilized to monitor the bonding process. To verify the proposed model, Borofloat33 glass and silicon wafers were adopted in bonding experiments in SUSS SB6 with five different bonding conditions (350 °C 1200 V; 370 °C 1200 V; 380 °C 1200 V; 380 °C 1000 V; and 380 °C 1400 V). The results indicate that the observed current data highly coincide with the proposed current-time model. For widths of depletion layers, depth profiling using secondary ion mass spectrometry demonstrates that the calculated values by the model are basically consistent with the experimental values as well.