An electrical contacting between a surrounding wiring and a conductor region. The conductor region is situated in a conductor layer above an SOI wafer or SOI chip. A cover layer is situated above the conductor layer and below the surrounding wiring. The cover layer has a contacting region. The contacting region is insulated from the rest of the cover layer by a first configuration of recesses. An opening is formed at least in the contacting region. A metallic material is situated in the opening. The metallic material connects the surrounding wiring and the conductor region.

A micro-electro-mechanical sensor comprises a first substrate comprising an element movable with respect to the first substrate and a second substrate comprising a first contact pad and a second contact pad. The first substrate is bonded to the second substrate such that a movement of the element changes a coupling between the first contact pad and the second contact pad.

A method is provided for sealing and contacting a microelectromechanical device that includes a silicon device wafer with MEMS device structures and a cap wafer with an electrical circuit. The device wafer includes a sealing region and an interconnection region. Moreover, the cap wafer includes a corresponding sealing region and an interconnection region. Layers of eutectic metal alloy material are deposited on the sealing and the interconnection regions of the device wafer and the cap wafer. The cap wafer is bonded to the device wafer so that the interconnection region of the device wafer is aligned with the interconnection region of the cap wafer and the sealing region of the device wafer is aligned with the sealing region of the cap wafer.

A glass wafer has an internal surface and an opposing external surface separated by a wafer thickness. A hermetic, electrically conductive feedthrough extends through the wafer from the internal surface to the opposing external surface. The feedthrough includes a feedthrough member having an inner face exposed along the internal surface for electrically coupling to an electrical circuit. The feedthrough member extends from the inner face partially through the wafer thickness to an exteriorly-facing outer face hermetically embedded within the wafer.

A microelectromechanical system (MEMS) device may include a MEMS structure over a first substrate. The MEMS structure comprises a movable element. Depositing a first conductive material over the first substrate and etching trenches in a second substrate. Filling the trenches with a second conductive material and depositing a third conductive material over the second conductive material and the second substrate. Bonding the first substrate and the second substrate and thinning a backside of the second substrate which exposes the second conductive material in the trenches.

A conductive layer is deposited into a trench in a sacrificial layer on a substrate. An etch stop layer is deposited over the conductive layer. The sacrificial layer is removed to form a gap. In one embodiment, a beam is over a substrate. An interconnect is on the beam. An etch stop layer is over the beam. A gap is between the beam and the etch stop layer.

A method for forming a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device structure is provided. The method includes forming a substrate over a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) substrate. The substrate includes a semiconductor via. The method also includes forming a dielectric layer over a top surface of the substrate, and forming a polymer layer over the dielectric layer. The method further includes patterning the polymer layer to form an opening, and the semiconductor via is exposed by the opening. The method includes forming a conductive layer in the opening and over the polymer layer, and forming an under bump metallization (UBM) layer on the conductive layer. The method further includes forming an electrical connector over the UBM layer, wherein the electrical connector is electrically connected to the semiconductor via through the UBM layer.

A three dimensional (3D) micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) device is provided. The device comprises a central MEMS wafer, and top and bottom cap wafers. The MEMS wafer includes a MEMS structure, such as an inertial sensor. The 5 top cap wafer, the bottom cap wafer and the MEMS wafers are stacked along a stacking axis and together form at least one hermetic cavity enclosing the MEMS structure. At least one of the top cap wafer and the bottom cap wafer is a silicon-on- insulator (SOI) cap wafer comprising a cap device layer, a cap handle layer and a cap insulating layer interposed between the cap device layer and the cap handle layer. At 10 least one electrically conductive path extends through the SOI cap wafer, establishing an electrical convection between an outer electrical contact provided on the SOI cap wafer and the MEMS structure.

A method is provided for bonding microelectromechanical components with at least two different pressure element cavities. The method includes forming on the cap wafer or/and on the structure wafer a metal layer that allows the hermetically sealing of one cavity at a first pressure, then hermetically scaling the other cavity at a second pressure.

An optical device formed of a mirror wafer, a cap wafer, and a glass wafer. The mirror wafer includes a first layer of electrically conductive material, a second layer of electrically conductive material, and a third layer of electrically insulating material between the first layer and the second layer. A mirror element is formed of the second layer of the mirror wafer, and has a reflective surface in the bottom of a cavity opened into at least the first layer. A good optical quality planar glass wafer can be used to enclose the mirror element when the mirror wafer, cap wafer, and glass wafer are bonded to each other.