Packaging

The chapter provides an overview of packaging concepts for microsystems and in particular microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The chapter starts with a brief summary of microelectronics packaging, highlighting the concept of different packaging levels, chip interconnection techniques, and standard integrated circuit packages. The first section concludes with a comparison of microelectronics and microsystems packaging requirements. The second part of the chapter covers zero-level packaging concepts, i.e. wafer-level packaging processes, which encapsulate the fragile MEMS/microsystem components before the dicing step. The last part of the chapter is dedicated to first-level packages for microsystems, covering dicing, die attach and interconnect, and various concepts for non-electrical feedthroughs. The final section is enriched by a number of microsystem examples, which utilize ceramic packages, metal packages, plastic packages or chip-on-board technologies.