Water-enhanced debonding of room-temperature bonded silicon wafers for surface protection applications

Reversible bonding of silicon wafers can be used to protect mirror polished silicon surface against organic contamination and particles. The present paper will report on debonding experiments of room-temperature bonded wafer pairs. It is found the water can significantly enhance the equilibrium crack length created by a blade inserted between two bonded wafers. A simple analytical model of this phenomenon is proposed which takes into account the interfacial energy between silicon and water. Combined with the “one-wafer bent” concept, it is anticipated that room-temperature reversibly bonded wafers with diameters up to 8 inches can be easily separated by using this technique. Water-enhanced debonding appears to be suitable for industrial applications due to its compatibility with main stream integrated circuit technology.