Microfabrication of cesium vapor cells with buffer gas for MEMS atomic clocks

Abstract

This paper reports on the Si-glass anodic bonding process to fill micro Cs vapor cells with a buffer gas (Ar or Ne) at a controlled pressure (up to 20 kPa), which is one of the technological key steps to fabricate Cs vapor cells for miniature atomic clocks. In the atmosphere of these gases, the applicable bonding voltage was not high enough to achieve strong bonding because of the electrical breakdown caused by ionization of the gas. To improve the bonding quality, an original two-step anodic bonding method was proposed. The first step of the anodic bonding, which intends to pre-seal the gas in microcells, is carried out in the presence of a buffer gas by applying a voltage lower than the breakdown voltage. Subsequently, the second bonding is performed in air at sufficiently high voltages to improve the sealing quality. By employing optical spectroscopy, it was demonstrated that the cells maintain the buffer gas at an appropriate pressure for atomic clock operation. The accelerated aging tests show that Cs vapor as well as the buffer gas remained in the cells without any significant change in the pressure, which allow us to estimate the lifetime of the cells to be at least 3 years. Further CPT experiments revealed that the buffer-gas pressure change is less than 6.13 × 10 −4 kPa throughout the aging test at 125 °C for more than 3 weeks. These results show that these microcells are appropriate for applications to atomic frequency references.