Fabrication and Performance of MEMS-Based Pressure Sensor Packages Using Patterned Ultra-Thick Photoresists.docVIP

Sensors 2009, 9, 6200-6218; doi:10.3390/OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Fabrication and Performance of MEMS-Based Pressure Sensor Packages Using Patterned Ultra-Thick Photoresists Lung-Tai Chen 1,2, Jin-Sheng Chang 1, Chung-Yi Hsu 1, and Wood-Hi Cheng 2,* 1 Micro-System Technology Center, Industrial Technology Research Institute. 709 Tainan, Taiwan; E-Mails: rexchen@.tw (L.T.C.); jimmychang@.tw (J.S.C.); enoshhsu@.tw (C.Y.H.) 2 Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Sun Yat-Sen University, 804 Kaohsiung, Taiwan * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: whcheng@.tw; Tel.: +886-7-5252000-4453; Fax: +886-7-5254499 Received: 30 June 2009; in revised form: 27 July 2009 / Accepted: 3 August 2009 / Published: 5 August 2009 Abstract: A novel plastic packaging of a piezoresistive pressure sensor using a patterned ultra-thick photoresist is experimentally and theoretically investigated. Two pressure sensor packages of the sacrifice-replacement and dam-ring type were used in this study. The characteristics of the packaged pressure sensors were investigated by using a finite- element (FE) model and experimental measurements. The results show that the thermal signal drift of the packaged pressure sensor with a small sensing-channel opening or with a thin silicon membrane for the dam-ring approach had a high packaging induced thermal stress, leading to a high temperature coefficient of span (TCO) response of -0.19% span/°C. The results also show that the thermal signal drift of the packaged pressure sensors with a large sensing-channel opening for sacrifice-replacement approach significantly reduced packaging induced thermal stress, and hence a low TCO response of -0.065% span/°C. However, the packaged pressure sensors of both the sacrifice-replacement and dam-ring type still met the specification -0.2% span/°C of the unpackaged p