Book excerpt: During the past decade direct wafer bonding has developed into a mature materials integration technology. This book presents state-of-the-art reviews of the most important applications of wafer bonding written by experts from industry and academia. The topics include bonding-based fabrication methods of silicon-on-insulator, photonic crystals, VCSELs, SiGe-based FETs, MEMS together with hybrid integration and laser lift-off. The non-specialist will learn about the basics of wafer bonding and its various application areas, while the researcher in the field will find up-to-date information about this fast-moving area, including relevant patent information.