A physical quantity sensor includes: a base substrate; a movable portion; a plurality of movable electrode fingers which are provided in the movable portion; a fixed electrode finger which is provided on the base substrate; and a fixing portion which fixes the movable portion to the base substrate. In the movable electrode fingers, a movable electrode finger which opposes the fixing portion in the first direction is included. A clearance between the movable electrode finger and the fixing portion is smaller than a clearance between the movable electrode finger and the fixed electrode finger. The width of the movable electrode finger is greater than the width of other movable electrode finger.

A capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) and methods of forming the same are disclosed herein. In one implementation, the CMUT comprises a glass substrate having a cavity; a patterned metal bottom electrode situated within the cavity of the glass substrate; and a vibrating plate comprising at least a conducting layer, wherein the vibrating plate is anodically bonded to the glass substrate to form an air-tight seal between the vibrating plate and the substrate and wherein a pressure inside the cavity is less than atmospheric pressure (i.e., a vacuum). In another implementation, the CMUT comprises a glass substrate with Through-Glass-Via (TGV) interconnects, wherein a metal electrode is electrically connected to a TGV and wherein said metal electrode can be in the bottom of a cavity of the glass substrate or on the vibrating plate.

Making alkali metal vapor cells includes: providing a preform wafer that includes cell cavities in a cavity layer; providing a sealing wafer having a cover layer and transmission apertures; disposing a deposition assembly on the sealing wafer; disposing an alkali metal precursor in the deposition assembly; disposing the sealing wafer on the preform wafer; aligning the transmission apertures with the cell cavities; subjecting the alkali metal precursor to a reaction stimulus; producing alkali metal vapor in the deposition assembly; communicating the alkali metal vapor to the cell cavities; receiving, in the cell cavities, the alkali metal vapor from the transmission apertures; producing an alkali metal condensate in the cell cavity; moving the sealing wafer such that the cover layer encapsulates the alkali metal condensate in the cell cavities; and bonding the sealing wafer to the preform wafer to make individually sealed alkali metal vapor cells in the preform wafer.

A method comprises: patterning a substrate, including a conductive region, with photoresist exposed by lithography, where the substrate is mounted on a handle substrate; forming a comb structure with conductive fingers on the substrate by at least removing a portion of the conductive region of the substrate; removing the photoresist; forming, one atomic layer at a time, at least one atomic layer of at least one conductor over at least one sidewall of each conductive finger; attaching at least one insulator layer to the comb structure, and the substrate from which the comb structure is formed; and removing the handle substrate.

A method of forming an infrared detector includes defining an optical window in a cover substrate. Defining the optical window includes forming a multilayer interference filter or a periodic diffraction grating on an upper surface of the optical window and a periodic diffraction grating on the lower surface of the optical window. The method also includes performing anodic bonding of a spacer onto the cover substrate, transferring the cover substrate provided onto a base substrate, and hermetically bonding the spacer onto the base substrate.

A microfluidic device comprising: a first substrate (402,502,602,702,802) having a first assembling side (402a,702a, 802a); and a second substrate (404,504,604,704,804) having a second assembling side (404a, 504a, 604a, 804a) connectable with the first assembling side (402a,702a, 802a) to assemble the first substrate (402,502,602,702,802) and the second substrate (404,504,604,704,804) together. At least one of the first assembling side (402a,702a, 802a) and the second assembling side (404a, 504a, 604a, 804a) has a fluid chamber channel (406,706,806), and after the first substrate (402,502,602,702,802) and the second substrate (404,504,604,704,804) are connected together, the fluid chamber channel (406,706,806) forms a fluid chamber having a fluid inlet (408,608,708,808) and a fluid outlet (410,510,610,710,810). The at least one of the first assembling side (402a,702a, 802a) and the second assembling side (404a, 504a, 604a, 804a) having the fluid chamber channel (406,706,806) has an outlet expansion groove (418,518,618,718,818, 818) adjacent to and extending downstream from the fluid outlet (410,510,610,710,810), and wherein at the fluid outlet (410,510,610,710,810), an outer peripheral profile of the outlet expansion groove (418,518,618,718,818, 818) is located outside an outer peripheral profile of the fluid outlet (410,510,610,710,810).

This vibration-driven energy harvesting element includes a fixed part, a movable part, an elastic support part that is integrally formed with the movable part and that elastically supports the movable part, and a glass base part in which the fixed part and the elastic support part are anodically bonded to each other in a separated state.

An improved wafer bonding method applying at least one prebonding element that deflects in the out-of-plane direction.

A manufacturing method for a micromechanical component. The method includes: providing an ASIC component including first front and rear sides, a strip conductor unit being provided at the first front side; providing a MEMS component including second front and rear sides, a micromechanical functional element situated in a cavity at the second front side; bonding the first front side onto the second front side; back-thinning the first rear side; forming vias starting from the back-thinned first rear side and from a redistribution unit on the first rear side, the vias electrically connecting the strip conductor unit to the redistribution unit; forming electrical contact elements on the redistribution unit; and back-thinning the second rear side. The back-thinning of the first and second rear side taking place so that a thickness of the stack made up of ASIC component and MEMS component is less than 300 micrometers.

A semiconductor layer having an opening and a MEMS resonator formed in the opening is disposed between first and second substrates to encapsulate the MEMS resonator. An electrical contact that extends from the opening to an exterior of the MEMS device is formed at least in part within the semiconductor layer and at least in part within the first substrate.