Packaging for MEMS and MST devices : The indent reflow sealing method

A variety of micro electo-mechanical system, MEMS, or microsystem, MST devices requires encapsulation of their crucial parts in a hermetically sealed cavity for reasons of protection, reliability and tuning of performance. Chances for damaging the fragile movable parts are minimized if the cavity is realized at a very early packaging stage, conveniently referred to as the 0-level or wafer-level packaging. In this article, a novel 0-level packaging method, called the indent-reflow-sealing (IRS) technique, will briefly be described. Application of the IRS method to the fabrication of a MEMS relay will be illustrated. More details on the IRS method can be found in ref. [1] ].