The long term objective of this proposed research is to provide a commercial facility and reactors for the production of thin polymer hermetic insulating materials specifically developed of the physiological environment and for the prevention of electrolytic corrosion of integrated circuit metallizations and lead wires. The methods of polymer formation by plasma polymerization and vacuum bake technology will be utilized to prepare surfaces, provide intermediate layers of composite film encapsulation, and reduce the number of encapsulant processing steps currently in use. Specifically, this research will determine if plasma reactor conditions optimized for adhesion can be combined will vacuum bake technology to reduce the moisture content and improve the encapsulation of MOS integrated circuit devices. In addition, the correlation of plasma polymerization energy parameters and corrosion protection of circuit metallizations and bond wires will be investigated. Commercially, there exists a large potential market for totally implanted intelligent devices which are scaled to the dimensions of the anatomical analogues that they are to assist or replace. Size constraints prohibits the application of conventional encapsulation techniques by hermetic sealing in metal packages. A significant technological innovation in packaging technology can be achieved by the introduction of hermetic sealing by plasma polymer encapsulation.
| Nichols, M F; Hahn, A W (1991) Functional hermetic encapsulation of integrated circuits. Biomed Sci Instrum 27:331-9 |
