Handbook of Silicon Based MEMS Materials and Technologies

Chapter Forty. Outgassing and Gettering

40.1. Introduction

Conventional packaging of microelectronic and optoelectronic devices is usually stable and not affected by the external environment except for a few specific cases. The high power semiconductor lasers at 980 nm are affected by the presence of moisture inside their hermetic package causing optical damages of their laser emitting facets. Hydrogen can weaken the Pd metallization of GaAs microwave power amplifiers packaged inside hermetic metallic packages. In both cases, a dryer and a thin film hydrogen getter respectively have been the practical way to guarantee a long lifetime and high reliability to these devices working under the oceans or on airplanes respectively. The evolution of ...