Patent Application
20050231070
A reed relay is a typical example of a conventional small, mechanical contact type of electrical switch device. A reed relay has two reeds made of a magnetic alloy sealed in an inert gas inside a glass vessel surrounded by an electromagnetic driver coil. When current is not flowing in the coil, the tips of the reeds are biased to break contact and the device is switched off. When current is flowing in the coil, the tips of the reeds attract each other to make contact and the device is switched on.
The reed relay has problems related to its large size and relatively short service life. As to the first problem, the reeds not only require a relatively large space, but also do not perform well during high frequency switching due to their size and electromagnetic response. As to the second problem, the flexing of the reeds due to biasing and attraction causes mechanical fatigue, which can lead to breakage of the reeds after extended use.
In the past, the reeds were tipped with contacts composed of rhodium (Rh) or tungsten (W), or were plated with rhodium (Rh) or gold (Au) for conductivity and electrical arcing resistance when making and breaking contact between the reeds. However, these contacts would fail over time. This problem with the contacts has been improved with one type of reed relay called a “wet” relay. In a wet relay, a liquid metal, such as mercury (Hg) is used to make the contact. This solved the problem of contact failure, but the problem of mechanical fatigue of the reeds remained unsolved.
In an effort to solve these problems, electrical switch devices have been proposed that make use of the liquid metal in a channel between two switch electrodes. In the liquid metal devices, the liquid metal acts as the contact connecting the two switch electrodes when the device is switched ON. The liquid metal is separated between the two switch electrodes by a fluid non-conductor when the device is switched OFF. The fluid non-conductor fluid is generally high purity nitrogen (N) or another such inert gas.
With regard to the size problem, the liquid metal devices afford a reduction in the size of an electrical switch device since reeds are not required. Also, the use of the liquid metal affords longer service life and higher reliability. However, as device sizes have been reduced, it has become more and more difficult to provide the proper amounts of the liquid metal into the main channels where the liquid metal may be separated by the application of pressurized non-conductor fluid.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but have long eluded those skilled in the art.
The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a liquid metal device. Liquid metal is solidified into solid metal balls. The solid metal balls are collected adjacent an opening in the liquid metal device. The solid metal balls are liquefied into liquid metal to flow into the opening. This results in a simple and inexpensive liquid metal forming system and a dispensing system for manufacturing a liquid metal device having a compact and relatively simple structure, but also has high operating reliability and a long service life.
Certain embodiments of the invention have other advantages in addition to or in place of those mentioned above. The advantages will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description when taken with reference to the accompanying drawings.
In the following description, numerous specific details are given to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will apparent that the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In order to avoid obscuring the present invention, some well-known system configurations and process steps are not disclosed in detail.
The term “horizontal” as used herein is defined as a plane parallel to the conventional plane or surface of the first substrate, regardless of its orientation. The term “vertical” refers to a direction perpendicular to the horizontal as just defined. Terms, such as “on”, “above”, “below”, “bottom”, “top”, “over”, and “under”, are defined with respect to the horizontal plane.
Likewise, the drawings showing embodiments of the invention are semi-diagrammatic and not to scale and, particularly, some of the dimensions are for the clarity of presentation and are shown greatly exaggerated in the FIGs. In addition, where multiple embodiments are disclosed and described having some features in common, for clarity and ease of illustration and description thereof like features one to another will ordinarily be described with like reference numerals.
Referring now to
The temperature-controlled chamber 100 is provided with a number of screens having different size openings. For example, first, second, and third screens 106, 108, and 110 are shown, with the first screen 106 having the largest openings and the third screen 110 having the smallest openings.
In operation, the temperature-controlled chamber 100 is stabilized at temperatures less than that of the melting point of the liquid metal used, which may be a liquid metal such as mercury (Hg), alloys of gallium (Ga), etc. For example, for mercury the solidification temperature is −38° C.
The spray nozzle 102 will provide the liquid metal 104 as fine droplets, which will solidify in the less-than-melting point temperature of the temperature-controlled chamber 100. The fine droplets will form solid metal balls having a small range of sizes.
The solid metal balls will fall on the first, second and third screens 106, 108, and 110 in the temperature-controlled chamber 100.
Each screen has holes or openings that decrease in size from the top screen 106 down to the bottom screen 110. This means the solid metal balls isolated on a given screen will have a range of cross-sectional areas from smaller than the cross-sectional area of the holes in the screen above to larger than the cross-sectional area of the holes in the screen below. Also, the solid metal balls will have the same approximate volumes within each range of cross-sectional areas.
The first screen 106 will hold the largest solid metal balls 112, and the second and third screens, 108 and 110, will hold smaller solid metal balls 114 and 116 respectively. This screening process separates the solid metal balls into different size ranges. It will be understood that the number of screens is optional depending upon the size ranges of solid metal balls desired. Different size ranges of solid metal balls can be used in a single device for such purposes as filling vias in addition to filling channels and other openings.
Referring now to
The array of metalization 204 in an alternate embodiment could be a combination energetically favorable material as a base with a capture material cap. For example, the array of metalization or combination of metalization and tray features 204 could comprise a non-wettable etched feature in the tray and gold caps. The gold cap would “capture” a liquid metal such as mercury. The mercury would dissolve the gold and the etched feature would trap the mercury/gold amalgam assisting in ball formation.
The tray 202 is placed into the chamber 200. With the temperature lowered to less than the melting point of the liquid metal, e.g., −38° C. for mercury (Hg), the surface tension of the liquid metal will increase with decreasing temperature to form liquid metal balls, which then solidify to form solid metal balls 212, 214, and 216. The solid metal balls 212, 214, and 216 will have substantially similar volumes. However, the solid metal balls 212, 214, and 216 can subsequently be separated into even more uniform size ranges by being poured through the first, second and third screens 106, 108, and 110 of
Referring now to
A wafer 304 containing empty liquid metal devices 306, such as micro electric switches, formed in and on device substrates is placed on the mechanically agitated stage 302. The temperature-controlled agitator chamber 300 is kept chilled below the solidification temperature of the solid metal balls.
Layers of solid metal balls, such as the solid metal balls 116 (
Small grooves or other etched openings (such as a liquid metal dispense reservoir 500 shown in
The wafer 304 with the trapped solid metal balls 116 or 212 is removed from the temperature-controlled agitator chamber 300. Each of the empty liquid metal devices 306 has a main chamber (such as the main chamber 410 of
The solid metal balls 116 or 212 are then allowed to liquefy or are melted into the liquid metal by being allowed to return to ambient temperature or being heated. This melting causes the liquid metal to flow into the main chambers of the liquid metal devices 306.
It will be understood that there are variations, which include using different wettable agents, surfactants, and/or pressure differentials to draw the liquid metal into the main channel of the liquid metal devices 306; e.g., depositing gold (Au) or some other wettable agent into the grooves or other etched features, or putting the wafer 304 into a pressure vessel while heating.
After the liquid metal is dispensed, then the main channel is sealed by a sealing agent and the substrates bonded by an adhesive; e.g., an adhesive sealing material may be a material such as one of the Cytop® materials (a registered trademark of Asahi Glass Company, available from Bellex International Corp. of Wilmington, Del.), spin-on-glass, epoxy, metal, or other material acting as a bonding agent and providing a hermetic seal.
Referring now to
The adhesive seals 406 can be of a material such as gold protected by a glass layer, which provides a seal which is impervious to mercury and which bonds well to silicon substrates. When gold is used for the wafer bond with silicon wafers, a seed layer is used between the gold and the silicon in order to make sure that the gold adheres to the silicon. A main channel 410 has been formed in the second substrate 404, which contains an inner seal 412. The inner seal 412 can be of a material such as glass. The inner seal 412 will only be around the main channel 410.
A liquid metal dispense channel mask 414 has been deposited on top of the second substrate 404 and processed to allow the formation of a groove or other etched feature. In this embodiment, the etching forms an opening to the main channel 410 referred to as a liquid metal dispense channel 416.
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The liquid metal device 900 is not necessarily preferable to the liquid metal device 400 of
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While different elements of the present invention can be on different substrates, the first substrate 402 is shown as including a main channel 1120, and three electrodes 1122, 1124, and 1126 are deposited in spaced relationship along the length of the main channel 1120.
Sub-channels 1130 and 1132 are also formed in the first substrate 402 respectively connected to the main channel 1120 between the electrodes 1122 and 1124 and between the electrodes 1124 and 1126. The sub-channels 1130 and 1132 respectively connect to chambers 1134 and 1136, which are formed in the substrate 402. The chambers 1134 and 1136 respectively are under heating elements 1138 and 1140.
The heating elements 1138 and 1140 in one embodiment are resistive heating elements electrically powered through the vias 1142 and 1144 through the first substrate 402. The filled vias are perpendicular holes through the first substrate 402 that are filled with a conductor so there are no significant leaks through the holes.
The first substrate 402 has the main channel 1120 filled with a liquid metal 1150, such as mercury (Hg), and a fluid non-conductor 1152, such as argon (Ar) or nitrogen (N). The second substrate 404 of
The materials of the first and second substrates 402 and 404 and of the adhesive seals 406 are selected to avoid chemical reaction with and wetting by the liquid metal 1150. Chemical reactions may render the liquid metal 1150 incapable of conducting current and wetting may make proper switching movement of the liquid metal 1150 impossible; i.e., an OFF state cannot be achieved because the electrical path between the electrodes 1122, 1124, and 1126 cannot be interrupted. Chemical reactions and wetting of the substrates or seals can also lead to leakage currents and reliability failures.
In operation, the liquid metal 1150 can be divided into first, second and third portions 1150A, 1150B, and 1150C, which are always respectively connected to the electrodes 1122, 1124, and 1126. The sub-channels 1130 and 1132, the chambers 1134 and 1136, and portions of the main channel 1120 are filled with the fluid non-conductor 1152. The fluid non-conductor 1152 is capable of separating the liquid metal 1150 into discrete portions, which will either connect the electrodes 1122 and 1124 or the electrodes 1124 and 1126 depending on whether the heating element 1140 or the heating element 1138 is respectively actuated.
Referring now to
While the invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it is to be understood that many alternatives, modifications, and variations will be apparent in the art in light of the aforegoing description. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variations that fall within the scope of the included claims. All matters hithertofore set forth or shown in the accompanying drawings are to be interpreted in an illustrative and non-limiting sense.
