Nxp B.v.

Nexperia B.v.

Hartmut Buenning

Sascha Moeller

Guido Albermann

Martin Lapke

Thomas Rohleder

Tonny Kamphuis

Christian Zenz

Leonardus Antonius Elisabeth Van Gemert

Michael Zernack

Leo M Higgins, Iii

Leo Van Gemert

Steffen Holland

Hans Van Rijckevorsel

Heiko Backer

Y Kuang Huang

A semiconductor device and a method of making the same. The device includes a semiconductor substrate having a major surface, a backside and side surfaces extending between the major surface and the backside. The semiconductor device also includes at least one metal layer extending across the backside of the substrate. A peripheral part of the at least one metal layer located at the edge of the substrate between the backside and at least one of the side surfaces extends towards a plane containing the major surface. This can prevent burrs located at the peripheral part of the at least one metal layer interfering with the mounting of the backside of the substrate on the surface of a carrier.

Semiconductor device and method of making a semiconductor device

A method of manufacturing a device with six-sided protected walls is disclosed. The method includes fabricating the plurality of devices on a wafer, forming a plurality of contact pads on each of the plurality of devices, cutting a first trench around each of the plurality of devices from a backside of the wafer with an active side having a plurality of contact pads facing down, applying a protective coating on the backside of the wafer thus filling the first trench with a protective material of the protective coating on the backside and cutting a second trench from the active side. The second trench extends to end of the first trench; The method further includes applying a protective layer on the active side including filling the second trench with the material of the protective coating on the active side thus making a wall through a combination of the first trench and the second trench, the wall fully filled with the material of the protective layer on the backside and the protective layer on the active side and singulating each of the plurality of devices by cutting through the wall substantially in middle across a thickness of the wafer.

Semiconductor device with six-sided protected walls

Embodiments are provided herein for separating integrated circuit (IC) device die of a wafer, the wafer having a front side with an active device region and a back side, the active device region having a plurality of active devices arranged in rows and columns and separated by cutting lanes, the method including: attaching the front side of the wafer onto a first dicing tape; forming a modification zone within each cutting lane through the back side of the wafer, wherein each modification zone has a first thickness near a corner of each active device and a second thickness near a center point of each active device, wherein the second thickness is less than the first thickness; and propagating cracks through each cutting lane to separate the plurality of active devices.

Variable stealth laser dicing process

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a method for preparing an integrated circuit (IC) device from a wafer substrate, the wafer substrate having a top-side surface with a plurality of active device die separated by saw lanes and an opposite under-side surface. The method comprises coating the under-side surface of the wafer substrate with a resilient coating, locating the position of the saw lanes from the underside surface, blade dicing trenches in the resilient material to expose under-side bulk material in the position of saw lanes, and plasma etching through the trenches to remove the exposed under-side bulk material.

Plasma dicing with blade saw patterned underside mask

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a method for preparing integrated circuit (IC) device die from a wafer substrate having a front-side with active devices and a back-side. The method comprises pre-grinding the backside of a wafer substrate to a thickness. The front-side of the wafer is mounted onto a protective foil. A laser is applied to the backside of the wafer, at first focus depth to define a secondary modification zone in saw lanes. To the backside of the wafer, a second laser process is applied, at a second focus depth shallower than that of the first focus depth, in the saw lanes to define a main modification zone, the secondary modification defined at a pre-determined location within active device boundaries, the active device boundaries defining an active device area. The backside of the wafer is ground down to a depth so as to remove the main modification zone. The IC device die are separated from one another by stretching the protective foil.

Combination grinding after laser (GAL) and laser on-off function to increase die strength

Consistent with an example embodiment, a method for preparing integrated circuit (IC) device die from a wafer substrate having a front-side with active devices and a back-side, comprises mounting the front-side of the wafer onto protective foil. A laser is applied to saw lane areas on the backside of the wafer, at a first focus depth to define a modification zone; the modification zone defined at a pre-determined depth within active device boundaries and the active device boundaries defined by the saw lane areas. The protective foil is stretched to separate IC device die from one another and expose active device side-walls. With dry-etching of the active device side-walls, the modification zone is substantially removed.

Plasma etching and stealth dicing laser process

An apparatus, device and method for wafer dicing is disclosed. In one example, the apparatus discloses: a wafer holding device having a first temperature; a die separation bar moveably coupled to the wafer holding device; and a cooling device coupled to the apparatus and having a second temperature which enables the die separation bar to fracture an attachment material in response to movement with respect to the wafer holding device. In another example, the method discloses: receiving a wafer having an attachment material applied to one side of the wafer; placing the wafer in a holding device having a first temperature; urging a die separation bar toward the wafer; and cooling the attachment material to a second temperature, which is lower than the first temperature, until the attachment material fractures in response to the urging.

Apparatus, device and method for wafer dicing

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a semiconductor device, with an active device having a front-side surface and a backside surface; the semiconductor device of an overall thickness, comprises an active device with circuitry defined on the front-side surface, the front-side surface having an area. The back-side of the active device has recesses f a partial depth of the active device thickness and a width of about the partial depth, the recesses surrounding the active device at vertical edges. There is a protective layer of a thickness on to the backside surface of the active device, the protective material having an area greater than the first area and having a stand-off distance. The vertical edges have the protective layer filling the recesses flush with the vertical edges. A stand-off distance of the protective material is a function of the semiconductor device thickness and the tangent of an angle (&#x3b8;) of tooling impact upon a vertical face the semiconductor device.

Using a double-cut for mechanical protection of a wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP)

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a method for assembling a wafer level chip scale processed (WLCSP) wafer; The wafer has a topside surface and an back-side surface, and a plurality of device die having electrical contacts on the topside surface. The method comprises back-grinding, to a thickness, the back-side surface the wafer. A protective layer of a thickness is molded onto the backside of the wafer. The wafer is mounted onto a sawing foil; along saw lanes of the plurality of device die, the wafer is sawed, the sawing occurring with a blade of a first kerf and to a depth of the thickness of the back-ground wafer. Again, the wafer is sawed along the saw lanes of the plurality of device die, the sawing occurring with a blade of a second kerf, the second kerf narrower than the first kerf, and sawing to a depth of the thickness of the protective layer. The plurality of device die are separated into individual device die. Each individual device die has a protective layer on the back-side, the protective layer having a stand-off distance from a vertical edge of the individual device die.

Protection of a wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP)

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is semiconductor device assembled to resist mechanical damage. The semiconductor device comprises an active circuit defined on a top surface, contact areas providing electrical connection to the active circuit. There is a pedestal structure upon which the active circuit is mounted on an opposite bottom surface; the pedestal structure has an area smaller than the area of the active device. An encapsulation, consisting of a molding compound, surrounds the sides and the underside of the active device and it surrounds the contact areas. The encapsulation provides a resilient surface protecting the active device from mechanical damage. A feature of the embodiment is that the contact areas may have solder bumps defined thereon.

Encapsulated wafer-level chip scale (WLSCP) pedestal packaging

Consistent with an example embodiment, there is a method for assembling a wafer level chip scale processed (WLCSP) device from a wafer substrate, the method comprises grinding the back-side of the wafer substrate to a prescribed thickness. A plurality of trenches is sawed along a plurality of device die boundaries on a back-side surface of the wafer, the trenches having a bevel profile. The plurality of trenches is etched until the bevel profile of the plurality of trenches is rounded.

Die preparation for wafer-level chip scale package (WLCSP)

Embodiments of methods and systems for processing a semiconductor wafer are described. In one embodiment, a method for processing a semiconductor wafer involves performing laser stealth dicing on the semiconductor wafer to form a stealth dicing layer within the semiconductor wafer and after performing laser stealth dicing, cleaning the semiconductor wafer from a back-side surface of the semiconductor wafer with a blade to remove at least a portion of the stealth dicing layer. Other embodiments are also described.

Growing community of inventors

Hamburg, Germany

Hartmut Buenning