MS00800 - SEMI MS8 - Guide to Evaluating Hermeticity of Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Packages

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized systems requiring packaging for environmental protection and for interconnection. While there are a wide range of MEMS devices, a common need is for packaging that allows movement of the internal device during operation. This is in contrast to the typical integrated circuit that requires only that the device be protected from the environment and that appropriate interconnections are made. In many cases, hermeticity is critical to MEMS device functionality. In other cases, hermeticity is primarily important to reliability of MEMS devices, similarly to integrated circuits. To accelerate improvements of packaged MEMS devices, leading to higher levels of marketplace acceptance, a guide to evaluating hermeticity of MEMS packages is required.This Guide is intended to provide an overview of hermetic packaging with emphasis on the evaluation of hermeticity of the smaller internal volumes typical of MEMS.This Guide is directed towards evalu