ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses packaging, assembly, and self-assembly. Under packaging of micromachines, we consider issues that differ the most from integrated circuit (IC) packaging; with micromachines one faces the paradox of needing hermetic isolation from the environment that must be sensed. This has proven to be a challenge for mechanical sensors, such as for pressure and, to a lesser extent, for accelerometers, but it is the Achilles’ heel of chemical and biological sensors. We distinguish between waferlevel (batch) packaging steps and serial packaging processes and learn that micromachining itself plays an important role in transforming costly serial packaging steps into less costly, wafer-level processes.
