Characterization of polymeric getter materials for MEMs/MOEMS and other microelectronic package service

Various getter materials have been developed over the years to deal with hydrogen and moisture caused problems in MEMS/MOEMS packages. These materials consist of two major families, metal alloy systems and polymeric systems. Both systems have pluses and minuses for the MEMS/MOEMS packaging engineer. In order to determine applicability, careful characterization of these systems is critical. The advent of a new class of polymeric getter materials originally developed for other industries has brought a need to readdress the issue of how to characterize such materials for MEMS/MOEMS service. While MIL-STD-883 gives a degree of guidance, it is not the complete answer. Characterization of these materials has consequently been clean sheeted to address the key areas of hydrogen and water capacity determination, and determination of ionics concentrations. Methods used and the results of this work will be discussed.