This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 96117782, filed May 18, 2007. All disclosure of the Taiwan application is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compliant bump. More particularly, the present invention relates to a compliant bump possessing enhanced structural strength by increasing a bottom area of the bump.
2. Description of Related Art
With rapid advancement of the display industry, flat-panel display technology has been evolved toward desired quality. Image resolution of displays is continuously improved, and modules of the displays are gradually equipped with positive attributes including lightness, thinness compactness, shortness and compactness. In line with said advancement, the package technology evolving from a chip-on-board (COB) bonding technology to a tape-automated-bonding (TAB) technology is now advanced to a fine-pitch chip-on-glass (COG) bonding technology.
The most common COG bonding process usually adopts an anisotropic conductive film (ACF) as a medium by which a chip and a glass substrate are electrically connected to each other. Through contacting gold bumps of the chip and metal pad plates of the glass substrate, conductive participles of the ACF are contributed to electrical conductivity. However, when a pitch between two adjacent leads is less than 20 micrometers, current leakage or short circuit is apt to occur between the two adjacent leads. Therefore, employing a non-conductive film as the medium through which the chip and the glass substrate are electrically connected to each other has been proposed, so as to resolve the issue of current leakage or short circuit arisen from the conductive particles embedded in the ACF.
As the pitch between the two adjacent leads is reduced, an area of the compliant bump has to be correspondingly decreased, which lowers an adhesive force between the compliant bump and the substrate. Thereby, the compliant bump may crack or peel off, reducing yield of products.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,556 discloses a bump structure in which a strip-shaped polymer bump is formed on a substrate. Thereafter, a plurality of strip-shaped conductive layers is formed on the polymer bump. Each of the conductive layers electrically connects a corresponding contact pad. However, since a top area of the whole strip-shaped is excessively large, a comparatively significant force may be applied when a flip chip bonding is performed. Moreover, after an adhesive is solidified, the relatively large bounce force is likely to open the bump between the chip and the glass substrate. Further, during the flip chip bonding, the adhesive confined within four polymer bumps results in great internal pressure, thus requiring a sufficient bonding force for conducting contacts and leading to the unlikelihood of removing the adhesive.
The present invention is directed to a bump structure in which an auxiliary polymer bump is disposed in peripheral areas of a polymer bump, so as to increase a bottom area of a compliant bump, and an adhesive force between the compliant bump and the substrate is further increased. As such, as the area of compliant bump is decreased, the compliant bump can be prevented from cracking or peeling off, improving yield of the compliant bump.
The present invention is further directed to a bump structure adapted to a chip having a passivation layer. In the bump structure, a polymer protection layer is formed on a substrate when a corresponding polymer bump is simultaneously constructed on each contact pad. Thereby, the polymer protection layer is not only capable of protecting devices, but also able to enhance structural strength of the polymer bump, thus avoiding the polymer bump from cracking or peeling off from the substrate.
The present invention provides a bump structure including at least one contact pad, at least one first polymer bump, at least one second polymer bump, and a conductive layer. The contact pad is disposed on a substrate, and the first polymer bump is also disposed on the substrate. The second polymer bump is disposed on the substrate and is connected to the first polymer bump. The conductive layer covers the first polymer bump and electrically connects the contact pad.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first polymer bump is disposed outside the contact pad, partially disposed on the contact pad, or completely disposed on the contact pad.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the second polymer bump is connected to any side of the first polymer bump, connected to more than two sides thereof, or connected to peripheral areas thereof.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the second polymer bump is connected to two first polymer bumps or more.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a height of the second polymer bump is less than or equal to that of the first polymer bump.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a junction between the second polymer bump and the first polymer bump has a trench or several holes.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the conductive layer wholly or partially covers the first polymer bump.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the conductive layer wholly covers the second polymer bump, partially covers the same, or uncovers the same.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bump structure further includes a passivation layer disposed on the substrate for exposing the contact pad.
The present invention further provides a bump structure including at least one contact pad, at least one first polymer bump, a polymer protection layer and a conductive layer. The contact pad is disposed on a surface of a substrate, and the first polymer bump is also disposed on the surface of the substrate. The polymer protection layer covers the surface of the substrate and connects the first polymer bump. Here, the first polymer bump and the polymer protection layer are formed by the same film layer. The conductive layer covers the first polymer bump and electrically connects the contact pad.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first polymer bump is disposed outside the contact pad, partially disposed on the contact pad, or completely disposed on the contact pad.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the conductive layer covers the first polymer bump and extends above a portion of the polymer protection layer.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the first polymer bump is disposed on the polymer protection layer, the conductive layer covers a portion of the polymer protection layer and the first polymer bump, and the contact pad electrically connects the conductive layer.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a junction between the polymer protection layer and the first polymer bump has a trench or several holes.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bump structure further includes a second polymer bump disposed on the polymer protection layer and connected to the first polymer bump.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the second polymer bump is connected to any side of the first polymer bump, connected to more than two sides thereof, or connected to peripheral areas thereof.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the second polymer bump is connected to two adjacent first polymer bumps or more.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a height of the second polymer bump is less than or equal to that of the first polymer bump.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a junction between the second polymer bump and the first polymer bump has a trench or several holes.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the bump structure further includes a passivation layer disposed on the substrate for exposing the contact pad.
In the bump structure of the present invention, the second polymer bump connecting peripheral areas of the first polymer bump is used as the auxiliary bump for increasing the bottom area of the compliant bump and further for improving the adhesive force between the compliant bump and the substrate. As such, when the area of compliant bump is decreased, the compliant bump can be prevented from cracking or peeling off, thus improving yield of the compliant bump.
In order to make the aforementioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention more comprehensible, several embodiments accompanied with figures are described in detail below.
Generally, chips can be classified into the chips having passivation layers and the chips in the absence of the passivation layers. Descriptions of a bump structure applied to the chips having no passivation layers according to the present invention will be firstly provided hereinafter.
One of the contact pads 110 is disposed on a substrate 100. The contact pads 110 disposed at a left side and a right side of the substrate 100 are arranged in a Y direction, while the contact pads 110 disposed above and below the substrate 100 are arranged in an X direction. The substrate 100 may be, for example, a silicon substrate, a glass substrate, a print circuit board, a flexible circuit board, or a ceramic substrate. A plurality of electronic devices or a plurality of integrated circuits has been formed in the substrate 100, for example. A material of the contact pads 110 is metal, for example. Besides, in an embodiment of the present invention, a passivation layer 102 exposing the contact pad 110 may be alternatively formed on the substrate 100, so as to prevent the substrate 100 from being damaged. A material of the passivation layer 102 is, for example, silicon nitride or any other appropriate dielectric material.
According to the first embodiment, the first polymer bump 120 is disposed on the substrate 100 and positioned outside the contact pad 110. Moreover, a material of the first polymer bump 120 is, for example, polyimide (PI), epoxy resin or an acrylic material. The second polymer bump 130a is also disposed on the substrate 100 and is connected to peripheral areas of the first polymer bump 120. By connecting the second polymer bump 130a to one side of the first polymer bump 120 in the present invention, a bottom area of the first polymer bump 120 is increased. As such, an adhesive force between the polymer bumps and the substrate 100 can be enhanced, the polymer bumps can be avoided from cracking or peeling off, and yield of contacts is further improved. The first polymer bump 120 and the second polymer bump 130a connected to one side of the first polymer bump 120 may be formed by the same film layer.
It is known from
Referring to
With reference to
Next, referring to
Further, as shown in
Referring to
Likewise, in the bump structure indicated in
Thereafter, descriptions of the bump structure applied to the chips equipped with the passivation layers according to the present invention will be provided hereinafter.
The contact pads 110 are disposed on a substrate 100. The polymer protection layer 150 is disposed on a surface of the substrate 100, so as to protect devices formed on said surface from being damaged. In the present embodiment, as the polymer protection layer 150 is formed, the corresponding first polymer bump 420 is simultaneously constructed on each of the contact pads 110. The first polymer bumps 420 and the polymer protection layer 150 are made up of same materials, whereas a height of one of the first polymer bumps 420 is more than that of the polymer protection layer 150. Thereby, the polymer protection layer 150 is not only capable of protecting the devices, but also able to enhance structural strength of the first polymer bumps 420, avoiding the same from cracking or peeling off from the substrate 100.
Similarly, the conductive layers 140 cover the first polymer bumps 420 and electrically connect the contact pads 110. One of the conductive layers 140 extending to the peripheral areas of the first polymer bumps 420 may serve as the testing pad 142. In the present embodiment, the contact pads 110 have a greater length. As such, one of the first polymer bumps 420 is merely disposed on one part of the contact pad 110, and the conductive layer 140 disposed on the other part of the contact pad 110 serves as the testing pad 142 for conducting the electrical examination.
The bump structure depicted in
Furthermore, a trench or several discontinuous holes (not shown) may be alternatively formed in the junction between the first polymer bump 120 and the polymer protection layer 150 and/or in the junction between the first polymer bump 120 and the second polymer bump 130a. Thereby, the conductive layer 140 can be avoided from cracking due to stress concentration. In addition, the conductive layer 140 may wholly cover the trench (or the holes), partially cover the same, or uncover the same.
The bump structure depicted in
Moreover, in the bump structure illustrated in
To sum up, in the bump structure of the present invention, the second polymer bump is disposed in the peripheral areas of the first polymer bump. The second polymer bump can be connected between two adjacent first polymer bumps or merely connected to one side of the first polymer bump. Through the disposition of the second polymer bump, the bottom area of the compliant bump is increased, and the adhesive force between the compliant bump and the substrate is further improved. Accordingly, as the area of compliant bump is decreased, the compliant bump can be prevented from cracking or peeling off, improving yield of the compliant bump.
The present invention is further directed to the bump structure adapted to the chip equipped with the passivation layer. In the bump structure, as the polymer protection layer is formed on the substrate, the corresponding polymer bump can be simultaneously constructed on each of the contact pads. Thereby, the polymer protection layer is not only capable of protecting devices, but also able to enhance structural strength of the polymer bump, avoiding the same from cracking or peeling off from the substrate.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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96117782 | May 2007 | TW | national |