The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 15, 2002
Filed:
Jul. 23, 2001
Laura A. Hnilo, McKinney, TX (US);
Mike P. Pierce, Plano, TX (US);
Roy A. Hastings, Allen, TX (US);
David Grant, Dallas, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A semiconductor chip bearing an alignment mark, particularly useful for wire bonder alignment on chips having bonding surfaces over the active circuits. The marks are fabricated on diagonal corners of the chip, and each mark consists of a pair of touching squares which are rotated about 90 degrees from each other in the opposite chip corners. The unique positioning of the marks, as well as the rotation provides both gross chip position features useful in mounting the chip on a lead frame, as well as fine alignment set-up or teaching aids for wire bonding. The small, high visual contrast features of the alignment mark are fabricated simultaneously with the top active metallization of the IC chip, and are not covered by passivation coating or additional metal layers.