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Main Authors: Ghosh, Kamalendu, Shrimali, Bhavesh, Jeong, Subin
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22827
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author Ghosh, Kamalendu
Shrimali, Bhavesh
Jeong, Subin
author_facet Ghosh, Kamalendu
Shrimali, Bhavesh
Jeong, Subin
contents Wafer-to-wafer (WxW) bonding is a key enabler for three-dimensional integration, including hybrid bonding for fine-pitch Cu-Cu interconnects. During bonding, wafer deformation and the air entrapped between the wafers interact through a strongly coupled, time-dependent fluid-structure interaction (FSI) that can produce non-intuitive bonding dynamics and process sensitivities. This paper develops a mathematically consistent reduced-order model for WxW bonding by deriving a Kirchhoff-Love plate equation for wafer bending from three-dimensional linear elasticity and coupling it to a Reynolds lubrication equation for the inter-wafer air film. The resulting nonlinear plate-Reynolds system is discretized and solved monolithically in the high-performance FEniCSx framework using a $C^0$ interior-penalty formulation for the fourth-order plate operator, standard continuous Galerkin discretization for the pressure field, implicit time integration, and a Newton solver with automatic differentiation. Simulations reproduce experimentally reported probe-displacement histories for multiple initial gaps and verify force equilibrium at the bond front, where the Reynolds pressure acts as an effective contact reaction. Parametric studies reveal nonlinear, and in some cases non-monotonic, sensitivities of bonding-front kinetics to the initial gap, air viscosity, and interfacial energy, providing actionable trends for process optimization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_22827
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Wafer-to-Wafer Bonding: Part: I -- The Coupled Physics Problem and the 2D Finite Element Implementation
Ghosh, Kamalendu
Shrimali, Bhavesh
Jeong, Subin
Computational Physics
Applied Physics
Fluid Dynamics
Wafer-to-wafer (WxW) bonding is a key enabler for three-dimensional integration, including hybrid bonding for fine-pitch Cu-Cu interconnects. During bonding, wafer deformation and the air entrapped between the wafers interact through a strongly coupled, time-dependent fluid-structure interaction (FSI) that can produce non-intuitive bonding dynamics and process sensitivities. This paper develops a mathematically consistent reduced-order model for WxW bonding by deriving a Kirchhoff-Love plate equation for wafer bending from three-dimensional linear elasticity and coupling it to a Reynolds lubrication equation for the inter-wafer air film. The resulting nonlinear plate-Reynolds system is discretized and solved monolithically in the high-performance FEniCSx framework using a $C^0$ interior-penalty formulation for the fourth-order plate operator, standard continuous Galerkin discretization for the pressure field, implicit time integration, and a Newton solver with automatic differentiation. Simulations reproduce experimentally reported probe-displacement histories for multiple initial gaps and verify force equilibrium at the bond front, where the Reynolds pressure acts as an effective contact reaction. Parametric studies reveal nonlinear, and in some cases non-monotonic, sensitivities of bonding-front kinetics to the initial gap, air viscosity, and interfacial energy, providing actionable trends for process optimization.
title Wafer-to-Wafer Bonding: Part: I -- The Coupled Physics Problem and the 2D Finite Element Implementation
topic Computational Physics
Applied Physics
Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.22827