packaging chips
single package? Today, no one business or technology model prevails. From a vacuum company perspective, one conclusion can be derived: more and more vacuum processing equipment will be required in the packaging factory, and the packaging factory managers are likely to be less experienced with that equipment than those same managers of an IDM or foundry.
Figure
1.Increased complexity in packaging will require greater user of vacuum-based processing tools
The feature sizes of the circuitry are orders of magnitude larger than today’s smallest transistor sizes, but the reliable manufacture of such features will require semiconductor processing knowledge. With full 3D packaging technology, greater skill will be required, as well as a potential division of labor related to device manufacturing and packaging.
In particular, for both 2.5D and 3D technology, the questions are: will independent device makers (IDMs) and foundries do the packaging themselves? Will out-source assembly and test (OSAT) companies stretch their technology portfolio to include more vacuum processing? Or, will all of the work go to an independent third party as part of an intellectual property protection strategy, especially when chips from different vendors are used in a
To minimize operating costs in an advanced packaging factory, it is helpful to take advantage of the advancements in vacuum product technology. For example, new vacuum pumps dedicated to load-lock or light duty processing are incredibly compact with low consumption of utilities. Figure 2 shows an example of such a light duty pump (the iXL120 from Edwards, which is well suited for PVD processing tools) and how it compares to other similar products in the market. The iXL120 consumes only 500 Watt of input power at a 700 Torr exhaust pressure. It can also evacuate a 50 liter vacuum chamber in only 17 seconds, a distinct advantage for improving processing tool throughput.
More vacuum pumps will be required for other processes likely to be introduced into packaging factories for 2.5D and 3D processing, such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of dielectrics and deep reactive ion etch (DRIE). DRIE, in particular, poses particular challenges related to thermal management of the pump and all associated piping to ensure high reliability and a long time between pump services. Experience with best known methods related to pump reliability counts if down- time is to be minimized.
As the complexity of processing increases, so will the number of vacuum pumps in the factory. As a company’s size increases, the number of factories will also increase, especially since packaging tends to be geographically close to where the wafers are being manufactured. In order to maximize operational efficiency, it can be financially advantageous to monitor vacuum pump performance to prevent unplanned maintenance and scrapping of wafers.
Figure 2a. Performance comparison of similarly classed load-lock pumps for use with with vacuum processing tools
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www.siliconsemiconductor.net Issue IV 2012
Vacuum pumps provided by leading manufacturers generally have on-board data monitoring capability and an ability for connection to a network where a database server is running to monitor and capture data. With good network design, vacuum pump data can be made easily available within a company’s intranet for monitoring purposes. Especially when fault prediction algorithms are employed, savings related to implementing a computer monitoring system add up quickly.
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