This paper presents a theoretical model to study the effects of bonding parameters on the electrostatic force in anodic wafer bonding process. The modeling results show that the temperature is the dominant factor to affect the electrostatic force which would cause the firm contact of two wafer surfaces facilitating the bonding reaction to occur. The voltage is also significant for the control of the maximum electrostatic force. The bonding temperature, applied voltage, and bonding time have an obvious complementary relationship for a certain electrostatic force needed for chemical reaction between Si and glass wafers. Based on the results achieved in this study, the reference optimum bonding process parameters can be easily selected to develop low temperature wafer bonding technology for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) packaging. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.