International Business Machines Corporation

Gerald J Scilla

Charles H Wilson

Jason P Ritter

Joseph K V Comeau

Adele M Mahoney

Kang-Wook Lee

Sylvain E Ouimet

Eric Duchesne

Claude Blais

A method of removing and/or reducing undesirable contaminants removes residues including graphitic layers, fluorinate layers, calcium sulfate (CaSO) particles, tin oxides and organotin, from a chip passivation layer surface. The method uses a plasma process with an argon and oxygen mixture with optimized plasma parameters to remove both the graphitic and fluorinated layers and to reduce the level of the inorganic/tin oxides/organotin residue from an integrated circuit wafer while keeping the re-deposition of metallic compounds is negligible. This invention discloses the plasma processes that organics are not re-deposited from polymers to solder ball surfaces and tin oxide thickness does not increase on solder balls. The ratio of argon/oxygen is from about 50% to about 99% Ar and about 1% to about 50% Oby volume. Incoming wafers, after treatment, are then diced to form individual chips that are employed to produce flip chip plastic ball grid array packages.

Method of removing metallic, inorganic and organic contaminants from chip passivation layer surfaces

A test environment and an associated method of testing and analyzing a semiconductor package material containing a molding compound, for stability in a sustained oxygen environment. Test samples are exposed to a pressurized gas containing oxygen, under elevated temperature below the glass transition temperature of the molding compound. Control samples are exposed to a pressurized inert gas under similar or more severe conditions of gas pressure, temperature, and humidity. At least one characteristic common to the test samples and the control samples is measured. A determination is made as to whether there exists at least one significant difference between the at least one measured characteristic of the test samples and the control samples.

Pressurized oxygen for evaluation of molding compound stability in semiconductor packaging

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Essex Junction, VT, United States of America

Gerald J Scilla