Fabrication of capacitive absolute pressure sensor using Si-Au eutectic bonding in SOI wafer

Abstract

A capacitive absolute pressure sensor was fabricated using a large deflected diaphragm with a sealed vacuum cavity formed by removing handling silicon wafer and oxide layers from a SOI wafer after eutectic bonding of a silicon wafer to the SOI wafer. The deflected displacements of the diaphragm formed by the vacuum cavity in the fabricated sensor were similar to simulation results. Initial capacitance values were about 2.18pF and 3.65pF under normal atmosphere, where the thicknesses of the diaphragm used to fabricate the vacuum cavity were 20 µm and 30 µm, respectively. Also, it was confirmed that the differences of capacitance value from 1000hPa to 5hPa were about 2.57pF and 5.35pF, respectively.