Glass- to-glass anodic bonding for high vacuum packaging of microelectronics and its stability

In this work, we have developed a new high vacuum packaging method using a glass-to-glass bonding for the application to microelectronic devices such as field emission display (FED). The glass-to-glass anodic bonding was established and optimized using introducing thin amorphous silicon (a-Si) interlayer. Also, we propose that the amount of oxygen ions is one of the important factors during the bonding process, as confirmed from the SIMS and XPS analyses for the reaction region of Si-O bond in interface. Our method was very effective to reduce the bonding temperature and make the high vacuum package of microelectronic devices over 10/sup -4/ Torr. Finally, to evaluate the vacuum sealing capability of a FED panel packaged by the method, the leak characteristics of the vacuum was examined by spinning rotor gauge (SRG) during 6 months and the electron emission properties of the panel were measured continuously for time variation during 26 days.