Glass-bonding techniques for semiconductor strain gages

Silicon strain gages bonded on stainless steel using glass frit for strain sensor applications

“…Experimental results have verified that the silicon strain gages using organic adhesive bonding exhibit relatively larger hysteresis errors than those using glass frit. Some researchers have used their findings in an effort to explain the mechanism, in that it is the visco-plastic behavior of the organic resin adhesives that causes the high temperature hysteresis and zero instability in the sensors [6]. However, our control experiment indicates that the organic adhesive bonding process is also a key factor that results in the hysteresis and repeatability errors.…”

“…These results indicate that the output performance of the sensors at temperatures as high as 125 • C is almost equal to those at room temperature. In contrast, silicon strain gages using organic epoxy bonding exhibit much larger hysteresis and repeatability errors at high temperatures than those at room temperature [6]. Therefore, the mechanical properties of the sensors (such as hysteresis and repeatability errors) can be significantly improved by using glass frit bonding.…”

“…On the other hand, although conventional organic resin adhesives used to attach the gages to various kinds of metals have excellent mechanical properties when used within their design limits, they outgas when exposed to high vacuum. In addition, as the operating temperature increases the organic adhesives begin to exhibit visco-plastic behavior, which will cause hysteresis and zero instability in the transducer [6][7][8]. Meanwhile, in some harsh environment applications (such as in the aerospace industry, deep well-drilling and heavy machinery) the reliable operation for transducers is essential because of vibration, mechanical shock and aggressive media, which also pose special requirements for sensor packages [9][10][11][12].…”

“…It is also applied as a new and effective sealing method in dye-sensitized solar cells and in some other electronic seals [20][21][22]. In terms of glass frit's application in the strain gage attachment process, Leasure et al [6] and Kim et al [7] have verified the feasibility that silicon strain gages can be bonded onto stainless steel (SS) using glass frit. However, strain gages bonded on 17-4 PH SS using glass frit for strain sensor applications are less studied, and the strain sensor's output performances are also rarely reported.…”

Reciprocating Arc Silicon Strain Gauges

“…One arc-shaped gauge chip and two linear gauge chips were attached to the steel diaphragm using a glass frit to evaluate their properties and the feasibility of using these sensing elements to measure high pressure. Although several organic epoxies could also have been used instead of glass frit to attach the silicone gauge to the metal diaphragm, they negatively affected the mechanical and electrical properties of the sensor, such as creep, hysteresis, nonlinearity, reproducibility, long-term reliability, and operating temperature range [ 25 , 26 ]. The glass frit bonding process consisted of three steps: glass frit screen printing, initial dry, and first and second firing.…”