MOEMS chip-level optical fiber interconnect

Abstract

A package design, fabrication process, and assembly process to hermetically seal the microstructure area of a microoptoelectromechanical system (MOEMS) at the chip level is presented and evaluated. The packaged chip is fabricated using the Bosch deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process on silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates. The packaging structures are formed during the batch fabrication of the MOEMS device. A hermetic seal is formed via an indium solder ring around the perimeter of the MOEMS chip that span channels etched in the silicon for optical fibers. The seal is made between the device chip, metallized optical fibers, and a cap chip with a fluxless soldering process. The integrity of the package is evaluated through die shear, fiber pull, and highly accelerated life testing (HALT).