By Rebecca Engmann*

Witness the silicon solution – courtesy of Hymite. This Copenhagen-area firm is setting the standard for silicon waferbased hermetic packaging technology - the tiny encapsulations that prevent components from interacting with the surrounding environment. This shielding property is particularly important in lasers, which deteriorate if exposed to moisture, and in micro-components, which are unable to move if corroded by particles or debris.

Engineers have long been dogged by the dilemma of how to protect components from the elements – without sacrificing their ability to hold an electrical current. It’s a dilemma that Hymite has solved in one, elegant fell swoop with its state-of-the-art method of installing silicon wafers inside hermetically sealed “caps” and “shells”.

Hymite’s patented technology is integrated into its two core products, HyCap and HyShell. True to its name, the former is basically a “cap” for an existing microchip - capping the component in this way eliminates the need for a secondary package, making it possible to install the chip directly on a circuit board. By comparison, HyShell is an actual enclosure for components - a
“shell” of silicon with a tiny cavity inside where the component is couched. HyShell’s main draw is its ultra-high level of built-in accuracy, making it unnecessary to adjust the components inside the shell manually.

Versatility, cost savings benefits

As Hymite CEO Claus Jørgen Nielsen explains, while the technology itself is fascinating in its simplicity, the real appeal of Hymite’s technology comes down to cost savings for manufacturers.

”Our silicon-wafer packaging solutions cut away expensive, time-consuming activities from the production process, making it more cost-competitive and efficient to package high-end components. Production volume is also a major draw: because the caps are manufactured using a batch process, it’s possible to produce huge numbers of caps on a single component. This in turn helps to limit costs on everything from consumer electronics to telecommunications equipment,” he says.

Mega-potential in diverse fields

Indeed, the cost-savings potential for this silicon wafer technology is outdone only by its astounding versatility. Hymite’s silicon-wafer packaging can be used in the accelerometers which stabilise recorded images on video cameras. Also in radio-frequency components in mobile phones and the light emitting diode (LED) technology found in standard remote controls, digital alarm clocks and your computer’s latest optical mouse.

Silicon is also an excellent thermo conductor - positioning Hymite’s technology as versatile packaging for highpowered light-emitting diode (LED) appliances. These high-powered LED’s, owing to their faster reactivity and energy efficiency, are already being used in the brake lights of newer cars and as flashes on mobile phone cameras.

Surprise, alternative applications are emerging as well. Take medical technology - as Claus Jørgen Nielsen explains, Hymite’s hermetically sealed microchip packaging is superbly suited for use in magnetic surgical instruments.

”Our packaging is superior because once these components have been packaged, they can remain sterile inside the human body and still perform with an incredibly high level of accuracy. To our great surprise and delight, silicon-wafer packaging is ideal product for medical equipment – it’s stronger than steel, very stable and perfect for human tissue, so we may see even more potential applications in the field in the future” he concludes.

This article was originally published by Øresund IT Magasine (nr. 6 - 2005). You can download the magazine in PDF format on Publications.

*Rebecca Engmann is an American journalist living in Copenhagen.