4. Packaging and assembly

Standardized microsystem packaging techniques are a prerequisite for high-volume module production, as they amortize the final cost of the product. This is why manufacturers have tried to recover the skills and techniques of packaging integrated circuits, and reuse them in the case of microsystems. To be viable, packaging must not represent more than a third of the total cost of the microsystem.

However, the wide range of applications for microsystems makes it necessary to adapt packaging to functionality. For example, in some configurations microsystems need to interact with the outside world (as in the case of pressure sensors, for example), while in other circumstances they need to be completely isolated (as in the case of hermetically encapsulated microsystems such as accelerometers or microgyroscopes, for example).

In addition, microsystems...