Technology Licensing and Transfer
3D IC Integrated MEMS Platform (SOICTM Technology)
The SOICTM platform of Faun is an oustanding solution for IC integrated MEMS products adressing multibillion dollar markets, including IC integrated accelerometers, gyroscopes, microphones, micro-mirrors, pressure sensors and resonators. Faun licenses the SOICTM platform and provides technology transfer services to customers in these business areas.
Faun has in cooperation with KTH-MST developed proprietary and generic platforms for wafer-level heterogeneous integration of MEMS on top of integrated circuits (ICs) and for wafer-level packaging. The heterogeneous Silicon-On-IC (SOICTM) platform allows the integration of mono-crystalline silicon MEMS sensors or actuators on top of CMOS foundry-based IC wafers.
The SOICTM platform is shown in the process scheme above. High-yield integration of mono-crystalline Si membranes has been demonstrated with various dimensions and specifications. Suitable Si membrane thicknesses are between 200 nm and a few tens of micrometers. The gap between the MEMS membranes and the IC wafer surface can be accurately controlled in the range from about 200 nm up to tens of micrometers and the vias that connect the ICs with the MEMS may be as small as 1 µm in diameter. Faun uses generic, adhesive wafer bonding techniques that work with virtually any substrate material and allows for wafer surface topographies on the IC wafers that are supplied by CMOS foundries. Time-consuming wafer-to-wafer alignment during bonding is not required. The alignment accuracy between the MEMS and the ICs are only limited by the alignment accuracy of the stepper lithography. All process steps for the SOICTM platform are readily available in MEMS foundries and thus, fab-less and fab-light business models are viable. 3D IC integrated MEMS based on the SOICTM platform is specifically suitable for micro-mirror arrays, IC integrated pressure sensors, microphones, inertial sensors and resonators.
| 
