EV Group of St Florian, Austria (a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor applications) says that over the past year it has seen a significant increase in demand for its wafer bonding solutions for engineered substrates, driven partly by the rapid growth in the power electronics and radio-frequency device markets (where, due to their unique material properties, engineered substrates offer key performance benefits, such as high carrier mobility and reduced power loss/leakage).
For the past several years, the engineered substrate market has mainly been driven by RF applications, including mobile electronic devices such as smart phones and Internet-connected tablet computers, says EVG. Mobile communications is expected to continue to spur significant demand for engineered substrates over the next several years — particularly for RF front-end applications — as a result of the global adoption of 4G and transition to the Internet of Things (IoT). At the same time, the need for improved performance in power devices utilized in adapters, electric vehicles, power inverters and other power electronic devices and applications is also driving up growth in engineered substrates such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN).
"Wafer bonding provides the most cost-effective and highest-yielding method for producing engineered substrates," says director of business development Dr Thomas Uhrmann. "EVG is well positioned to capitalize on this growth and support the evolving needs of engineered substrate manufacturers," he adds. "We helped pioneer the engineered substrate market with the introduction of our first silicon-on-insulator (SOI) production wafer bonder more than two decades ago. Over the years, we have enabled our customers to continually innovate in this market."
EVG has a complete suite of fusion wafer bonding solutions for different engineered substrate applications:
the EVG850 automated production bonding system for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and direct wafer bonding has been continually enhanced to meet tighter industry specifications for newer SOI technologies such as fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI). the EVG850LT LowTemp plasma-activated automated fusion bonder provides wafer annealing at temperatures below 400°C, enabling its use for bonding a variety of substrate materials with different coefficient of thermal expansions (CTEs) that are not compatible with higher-temperature fusion bonding processes using an interfacial oxide layer. the EVG580 ComBond automated high-vacuum covalent wafer bonding system combines several technology breakthroughs to enable the formation of bond interfaces between heterogeneous materials at room temperature while achieving what is claimed to be excellent bonding strength and electrical conductivity.
