Abstract Implantable devices which interact with neuronal systems and last for the lifetime of the recipient are an emerging field in medical research, diagnostics and therapeutics. These devices often contain sensitive micro-electronics ranging from passive radio-frequency identification tags to active sensors and stimulators. Therefore, such devices require robust and biocompatible packaging. There is a strong desire to reduce the size of such devices, enable wireless communication methods and protect these devices in the body for many decades. Diamond is a biopermanent material that provides the chemical inertness and mechanical stability to ensure long operational life of implanted devices and can also exhibit excellent optical and radiofrequency transparency. For some applications, the transparency of diamond is used to enable optical power and data communication with the encapsulated electronics. The final assembly of the device often requires the joining of diamond to diamond, and such joints are challenging to fabricate. Here we describe a new method of hermetically fusing diamond to diamond using a thin silicon interlayer as a braze material. The strong bond forms due to SiC formation at the interface of the materials. A 3.5 × 3.5 × 0.3 mm diamond box was formed from a thermal grade diamond base with a thin, transparent diamond lid. We show by helium leak detection and non-destructive optical methods, that the package is hermetically sealed to better than 2.2 × 10−9 cm3 atm/s of helium. The method is an industrially relevant route to forming long lived implantable diamond packages, in particular the incorporation of transparent diamond windows into the package to enable for optical power and data communication.

中文翻译：

---

金刚石微元件与硅的密封融合

摘要 可与神经元系统相互作用并在接受者的一生中持续使用的植入式设备是医学研究、诊断和治疗中的一个新兴领域。这些设备通常包含敏感的微电子设备，从无源射频识别标签到有源传感器和刺激器。因此，此类设备需要坚固且具有生物相容性的包装。几十年来，人们强烈希望减小此类设备的尺寸，启用无线通信方法并在体内保护这些设备。金刚石是一种生物永久性材料，可提供化学惰性和机械稳定性，以确保植入设备的长使用寿命，并且还具有出色的光学和射频透明度。对于某些应用程序，金刚石的透明度用于实现与封装电子设备的光功率和数据通信。设备的最终组装通常需要将金刚石连接到金刚石，而这种接头的制造具有挑战性。在这里，我们描述了一种使用薄硅夹层作为钎焊材料将金刚石密封熔合到金刚石的新方法。由于材料界面处的 SiC 形成，形成了强键。一个 3.5 × 3.5 × 0.3 毫米的金刚石盒由热级金刚石底座制成，带有薄而透明的金刚石盖。我们通过氦气泄漏检测和非破坏性光学方法表明，封装被密封到优于 2.2 × 10−9 cm3 atm/s 的氦气。该方法是形成长寿命可植入金刚石包装的工业相关途径，