Reactive bonding is a still new low-temperature joining process that is based on reactive nanoscale multilayer systems. The heat required for the bonding process is generated by a self-propagating exothermic reaction within the multilayer system while the adhesive interconnect is supported by solder films. For microsystem applications, the approach is particularly useful if temperature-sensitive components and materials with high differences in coefficient of thermal expansion have to be joined. In this paper, this is successfully demonstrated for bonding a quartz strain gauge onto a stainless steel membrane and an IR-emitter onto a covar socket by using commercially available nickel/aluminum NanoFoils. The quality of the bond interface of both demonstrators was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and the strength was determined by a tensile test. On the other hand, integrated microsystem applications beyond die attachment require patterned bond structures, e.g. to form bond frames. Thus, alternative materials were additionally considered that can be directly deposited on silicon substrates by magnetron sputtering, such as aluminum/titanium as well as titanium/amorphous silicon (Ti/a-Si) bilayer systems. The properties of these basic multilayer systems and their reaction products were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry and high-resolution electron microscopy. It is shown that specifically the Ti/a-Si system has substantial potential for direct microsystem technology integration provided the remaining open technological issues can be addressed during future research. In general, the results obtained in this study demonstrate the high potential of the reactive bonding process as a new advantageous assembly technology for the fabrication of future microsystems.
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