Atmospheric-pressure plasma pretreatment for direct bonding of silicon wafers at low temperatures

Using dielectric barrier discharges at atmospheric pressure, silicon wafers have been treated for low-temperature direct wafer bonding with annealing temperatures down to 100 °C. The experimental setup and the bond procedure are described and the influences of different experimental parameters, such as plasma treatment duration, annealing temperature and process gas composition are presented. Bond energies were determined by the crack opening method.