Analysis of Experimental Biaxial Surface Wrinkling Pattern Based on Direct 3D Numerical Simulation.

This paper presents a direct 3D numerical simulation of biaxial surface wrinkling of thin metal film on a compliant substrate. The selected compliant substrate is a commercial Scotch tape on which a gold metal thin film has been transferred by using low adhesion between the thin metal film and polyimide substrate. Compared with the previous fabrication of a cylindrical thin-film wrinkling pattern, an undulated wrinkling pattern has been implemented by increasing the width of the thin metal film in order to create biaxial straining in the thin film. To understand the wrinkling behavior due to biaxial loading, a simple direct numerical simulation based on material imperfections defined in the compliant substrate has been conducted. Through modeling and simulation, it was found that the wrinkling mode is determined by the biaxiality ratio (BR), the ratio between transversal strain and longitudinal strain. Depending on the BR, the wrinkling mode belongs to one of the cylindrical, undulated (or herringbone), checkerboard, or labyrinth modes as a function of applied strain. The cylindrical wrinkling is dominant at the input of BR less than 0.5, while the undulated (or herringbone) ones become dominant just after the onset of the wrinkling pattern at BR greater than 0.9. Through the comparison of the wrinkling patterns between simulation and experiment, the applied BR of the fabricated thin film has been successfully estimated.

FEM Analysis of Buckled Dielectric Thin-Film Packaging Based on 3D Direct Numerical Simulation.

This paper presents a 3D direct numerical simulation of buckled thin-film packaging based on transferred elastic thin-film wrinkling bonded on a compliant polymer ring. The mode change of the fabricated thin-film cap is found by measuring the thin-film cap shape at different times after Si substrate debonding. The conventional linear and nonlinear buckling simulations are not adequate to understand the behavior of the thin-film buckling mechanism creating such packaging cap mode change. Direct buckling simulation is recently reported as an easy and useful numerical wrinkling simulation method. A novel 3D FEM model of a thin-film package suitable for direct 3D buckling simulation is built to reduce the mode mixture between different buckling modes. Buckling modes of the packaging cap are investigated in terms of elastic moduli of package materials and applied strain due to thermal expansion coefficient difference. Based on the simulation results, it is found that there are two main modes in the fabricated thin-film buckling package determining the shape of the transferred thin-film packaging cover depending on the elasticity ratio between the cap and sealing ring materials. The mode shift from wrinkling cap mode to out-of-plane cap mode due to applied strain along a polymeric sealing ring is found.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Surface Wrinkling for Extraction of Thin Metal Film Material Properties.

This paper presents a direct numerical simulation for the extraction of material properties based on thin-film wrinkling on scotch tape. Conventional FEM-based buckling simulation sometimes requires complex modeling techniques concerning mesh element manipulation or boundary conditions. The direct numerical simulation differs from FEM (finite element method)-based conventional two-step linear-nonlinear buckling simulation in that mechanical imperfections are directly applied into the elements of the simulation model. Hence, it can be performed in one step to find the wrinkling wavelength and amplitude, which are key parameters to extract the material mechanical properties. Moreover, the direct simulation can reduce simulation time and modeling complexity. Using the direct model, the effect of the number of imperfections on wrinkling characteristics was first studied, and then wrinkling wavelengths depending on the elastic moduli of the associated materials were prepared for the extraction of material properties. Thin-film wrinkling test patterns on scotch tape were fabricated using the transfer technique with low adhesion between metal films and the polyimide substrate. The material properties of the thin metal films were determined by comparing the measured wrinkling wavelengths and the proposed direct simulation results. By consequence, the elastic moduli of 300 nm thick gold film and 300 nm thick aluminum were determined as 250 GPa and 300 GPa, respectively.

Mechanical Characterization and Analysis of Different-Type Polyimide Feedthroughs Based on Tensile Test and FEM Simulation for an Implantable Package.

This paper presents the mechanical behaviors of different types of polyimide feedthroughs that are frequently used for implantable polymer encapsulation. Implantable packages of electronic devices often comprise circuits mounted on printed circuit boards (PCBs) encapsulated in a biocompatible polymer material, with input/output feedthroughs for electrical interconnections. The feedthroughs are regarded as essential elements of the reliability of the package since they create inevitable interfaces with the encapsulation materials. Flexible materials are frequently used for feedthroughs owing to their ease of manufacturing; thus, their mechanical properties are crucial as they directly interact with parts of the human body, such as the brain and neurons. For this purpose, tensile tests were performed to characterize the mechanical properties of flexible PCBs (FPCBs) and photosensitive polyimides (PSPIs). Commercial FPCBs and homemade PSPIs of two different thicknesses were subjected to tensile tests for mechanical characterization. The FPCBs showed typical stress-strain curves, while the PSPIs showed brittleness or strain hardening depending on the thickness. The material properties extracted from the tensile tests were used for explicit modeling using the finite element method (FEM) and simulations to assess mechanical behaviors, such as necking and strain hardening.

Editorial for the Special Issue "MEMS Packaging Technologies and 3D Integration".

As fabrication technologies advance, the packaging of MEMS device is being developed in two main directions: MEMS device packaging and MEMS or sensor system integration [...].

A Study on Biocompatible Polymer-Based Packaging of Neural Interface for Chronic Implantation.

This paper proposed and verified the use of polymer-based packaging to implement the chronic implantation of neural interfaces using a combination of a commercial thermal epoxy and a thin parylene film. The packaging's characteristics and the performance of the vulnerable interface between the thermal epoxy layer and polyimide layer, which is mainly used for neural electrodes and an FPCB, were evaluated through in vitro, in vivo, and acceleration experiments. The performance of neural interfaces-composed of the combination of the thermal epoxy and thin parylene film deposition as encapsulation packaging-was evaluated by using signal acquisition experiments based on artificial stimulation signal transmissions through in vitro and in vivo experiments. It has been found that, when commercial thermal epoxy normally cured at room temperature was cured at higher temperatures of 45 °C and 65 °C, not only is its lifetime increased with about twice the room-temperature-based curing conditions but also an interfacial adhesion is higher with more than twice the room-temperature-based curing conditions. In addition, through in vivo experiments using rats, it was confirmed that bodily fluids did not flow into the interface between the thermal epoxy and FPCB for up to 18 months, and it was verified that the rats maintained healthy conditions without occurring an immune response in the body to the thin parylene film deposition on the packaging's surface.

Polymer-Based Biocompatible Packaging for Implantable Devices: Packaging Method, Materials, and Reliability Simulation.

Polymer materials attract more and more interests for a biocompatible package of novel implantable medical devices. Medical implants need to be packaged in a biocompatible way to minimize FBR (Foreign Body Reaction) of the implant. One of the most advanced implantable devices is neural prosthesis device, which consists of polymeric neural electrode and silicon neural signal processing integrated circuit (IC). The overall neural interface system should be packaged in a biocompatible way to be implanted in a patient. The biocompatible packaging is being mainly achieved in two approaches; (1) polymer encapsulation of conventional package based on die attach, wire bond, solder bump, etc. (2) chip-level integrated interconnect, which integrates Si chip with metal thin film deposition through sacrificial release technique. The polymer encapsulation must cover different materials, creating a multitude of interface, which is of much importance in long-term reliability of the implanted biocompatible package. Another failure mode is bio-fluid penetration through the polymer encapsulation layer. To prevent bio-fluid leakage, a diffusion barrier is frequently added to the polymer packaging layer. Such a diffusion barrier is also used in polymer-based neural electrodes. This review paper presents the summary of biocompatible packaging techniques, packaging materials focusing on encapsulation polymer materials and diffusion barrier, and a FEM-based modeling and simulation to study the biocompatible package reliability.

Autonomous Energy Harvester Based on Textile-Based Enzymatic Biofuel Cell for On-Demand Usage.

This paper presents an autonomous energy harvester based on a textile-based enzymatic biofuel cell, enabling an efficient power management and on-demand usage. The proposed biofuel cell works by an enzymatic reaction with glucose in sweat absorbed by the specially designed textile for sustainable and efficient energy harvesting. The output power of the textile-based biofuel cell has been optimized by changing electrode size and stacking electrodes and corresponding fluidic channels suitable for following power management circuit. The output power level of single electrode is estimated less than 0.5 µW and thus a two-staged power management circuit using intermediate supercapacitor has been presented. As a solution to produce a higher power level, multiple stacks of biofuel cell electrodes have been proposed and thus the textile-based biofuel cell employing serially connected 5 stacks produces a maximal power of 13 µW with an output voltage of 0.88 V when load resistance is 40 kΩ. A buck-boost converter employing a crystal oscillator directly triggered by DC output voltage of the biofuel cell makes it possible to obtain output voltage of the DC-DC converter is 6.75 V. The efficiency of the DC-DC converter is estimated as approximately 50% when the output power of the biofuel cell is tens microwatts. In addition, LT-spice modeling and simulation has been presented to estimate power consumption of each element of the proposed DC-DC converter circuit and the predicted output voltage has good agreement with measurement result.

Characterization and Analysis of Metal Adhesion to Parylene Polymer Substrate Using Scotch Tape Test for Peripheral Neural Probe.

This paper presents measurement and FEM (Finite Element Method) analysis of metal adhesion force to a parylene substrate for implantable neural probe. A test device composed of 300 nm-thick gold and 30 nm-thick titanium metal electrodes on top of parylene substrate was prepared. The metal electrodes suffer from delamination during wet metal patterning process; thus, CF4 plasma treatment was applied to the parylene substrate before metal deposition. The two thin film metal layers were deposited by e-beam evaporation process. Metal electrodes had 200 µm in width, 300 µm spacing between the metal lines, and 5 mm length as the neural probe. Adhesion force of the metal lines to parylene substrate was measured with scotch tape test. Angle between the scotch tape and the test device substrate changed from 60° to 90° during characterization. Force exerted the scotch tape was recorded as the function of displacement of the scotch tape. It was found that a peak was created in measured force-displacement curve due to metal delamination. Metal adhesion was estimated 1.3 J/m2 by referring to the force peak and metal width at the force-displacement curve. Besides, the scotch tape test was simulated to comprehend delamination behavior of the test through FEM modeling.

Ultralow-phase-noise oscillators based on BAW resonators.

This paper presents two 2.1-GHz low-phase noise oscillators based on BAW resonators. Both a single-ended common base structure and a differential Colpitts structure have been implemented in a 0.25-µm BiCMOS process. The detailed design methods including the realization, optimization, and test are reported. The differential Colpitts structure exhibits a phase noise 6.5 dB lower than the single-ended structure because of its good performance of power noise immunity. Comparison between the two structures is also carried out. The differential Colpitts structure shows a phase noise level of -87 dBc/Hz at 1-kHz offset frequency and a phase noise floor of -162 dBc/Hz, with an output power close to -6.5 dBm and a core consumption of 21.6 mW. Furthermore, with the proposed optimization methods, both proposed devices have achieved promising phase noise performance compared with state-of-the-art oscillators described in the literature. Finally, we briefly present the application of the proposed BAW oscillator to a micro-atomic clock.