Review of Short-Wavelength Infrared Flip-Chip Bump Bonding Process Technology

Short-wave infrared (SWIR) imaging has a wide range of applications in civil and military fields. Over the past two decades, significant efforts have been devoted to developing high-resolution, high-sensitivity, and cost-effective SWIR sensors covering the spectral range from 0.9 μm to 3 μm. These advancements stimulate new prospects across a wide array of fields including life sciences, medical diagnostics, defense, surveillance, security, free-space optics (FSO), thermography, agriculture, food inspection, and LiDAR applications. In this review, we begin by introducing monolithic SWIR image sensors and hybrid SWIR image sensors and indicate that flip-chip bump bonding technology remains the predominant integration method for hybrid SWIR image sensors owing to its outstanding performance, adaptable integration with innovative epitaxial SWIR materials, long-term stability, and long-term reliability. Subsequently, we comprehensively summarize recent advancements in epitaxial thin-film SWIR sensors, encompassing FPAs and flip-chip bump bonding technology for epitaxial InGaAs and Ge (Sn) thin-film SWIR sensors. Finally, a summary and outlook regarding the development of InGaAs and Ge (Sn) SWIR sensors are provided and discussed. The ongoing evolution of epitaxial thin-film SWIR sensors with flip-chip bump bonding technology is poised to foster new applications in both academic and industry fields.