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:
May. 22, 2012
Filed:
Oct. 31, 2007
Joze E. Antol, Hamburg, PA (US);
John W. Osenbach, Kutztown, PA (US);
Kurt G. Steiner, Fogelsville, PA (US);
Joze E. Antol, Hamburg, PA (US);
John W. Osenbach, Kutztown, PA (US);
Kurt G. Steiner, Fogelsville, PA (US);
Agere Systems Inc., Allentown, PA (US);
Abstract
According to certain embodiments, integrated circuits are fabricated using brittle low-k dielectric material to reduce undesired capacitances between conductive structures. To avoid permanent damage to such dielectric material, bond pads are fabricated with support structures that shield the dielectric material from destructive forces during wire bonding. In one implementation, the support structure includes a passivation structure between the bond pad and the topmost metallization layer. In another implementation, the support structure includes metal features between the topmost metallization layer and the next-topmost metallization layer. In both cases, the region of the next-topmost metallization layer under the bond pad can have multiple metal lines corresponding to different signal routing paths. As such, restrictions on the use of the next-topmost metallization layer for routing purposes are reduced compared to prior-art bond-pad support structures that require the region of the next-topmost metallization layer under the bond pad to be a single metal structure.