Silicon-to-silicon wafer bonding has been successful prepared using sol-gel intermediate layer, which is deposited by spinning acid catalyzed tetraethylthosilicate (TEOS) solution on both two silicon wafer surfaces. To investigate the effects of the process parameters, Draper-Lin small composite design is used, as it requires the minimum runs in the design of experiments. Four process parameters, bonding temperature, solution PH value, solution concentration and solution aging time, have been considered to influence the bond quality, including bond efficiency and bond strength. The bond efficiency is in the range of 40%–90% and bond strength is up to 35 MPa. Statistic analysis shows that the bonding temperature is the dominant factor for the bond quality, while the interaction between temperature and concentration is significant on bond strength. Various characterization techniques, including differential thermal analysis (DTA), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM), contact angle measurement and ellipsometry, have been used to study the surface and interface properties. The residual organic species inside the sol-gel coating may be the origin of the significant effect of bonding temperature on the bond efficiency. The interaction effect on bond strength is attributed to the surface hydrophilicity and porosity of sol-gel coating. Higher concentration solution can form lower hydrophilic wafer surface, which results in lower bond strength when bonding temperature is at low level. Whereas, at high bonding temperatures, the increase of porosity of the sol-gel coating prepared by higher sol concentration can absorb more undesired hydrocarbon gas molecules and lead to higher bond strength. The bonding mechanism for the low temperature sol-gel intermediate layer bonding technique is related to the smooth coating surface, porous intermediate layer and water-absent bonding groups.
