Die separation and packaging of a surface micromachined piezoresistive pressure sensor

The processing steps required to obtain a useful single medical sensor assembly are discussed, starting from an entire silicon wafer with thousands of surface micromachined sensors. Experiences concerning dicing and packaging of a piezoresistive pressure sensor are described, together with proposals for solutions. Problems with fracture of essential sensor structures are solved by use of a wafer protection tape. Existing solutions for flip–chip bonding and design of substrate for electrical interconnection are pushed to their limits due to the very small size of the novel sensor. As many of the processes can be simplified by an improved MEMS design, critical points related to the design are addressed.