Altera Corporation

Guru Thalapaneni

Raminda U Madurawe

Francois Gregoire

Pad structures for an integrated circuit are provided that use via holes or slots rather than large pad openings to form electrical connections between successive metal interconnection layers. The via holes or slots are filled using standard metal etchback deposition techniques. The pad structures minimize particle generation during circuit fabrication. A number of the via holes or slots in the pad structure can be interconnected in parallel to provide a sufficient current handling capacity to distribute power to the active components on the integrated circuit.

Integrated circuit pad structures

An integrated circuit chip die (12) is manufactured with sacrificial structures (16) placed at the areas of die that are likely to experience cracks. According to one embodiment of the invention, these sacrificial structures are placed at the corners of the die. The sacrificial structures are constructed with metal lines (22, 24) that resist propagation of cracks into the area of the die containing electronic devices. The metal lines form lattice steps so that the surface of the die will more tightly bond to the molding compound that makes up the die package.

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Union City, CA, United States of America

Guru Thalapaneni