This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 to Japanese Patent Application No. JP2005-265477 filed Sep. 13, 2005, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique relating to a device such as a semiconductor chip, and in particular, relates to a device on a back surface of which an adhesive film is adhered, and to a manufacturing method for the device.
2. Related Art
In recent techniques for semiconductor devices, a stacked package such as an MCP (Multi-Chip Package) and a SiP (System in Package), in which a plurality of semiconductor chips are stacked, is used effectively in order to achieve high density and miniaturization. On a back surface of the semiconductor chip provided in such a technique, an adhesive film called a DAF (Die Attach Film), which is made of resin is adhered. With this adhesive film, the stacked state of the semiconductor chips is maintained. As a method for manufacturing the semiconductor chip on the back surface of which the adhesive film is adhered, there is a method in which the adhesive film is adhered on a back surface of a thinned semiconductor wafer, and the semiconductor wafer is divided along predetermined division lines called “streets” in the shape of a lattice while cutting the adhesive film (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-319829).
In this type of semiconductor chip, mold resin is filled in a periphery of the semiconductor chip after the chip is mounted on a mounting board in many cases. However, if the adhesive film does not cover the entire back surface of the semiconductor chip, and if a small part of an edge of the back surface is exposed, for example, a filler material included in the mold resin and called “filler” (with a particle diameter of about 10 to 20 μm and including silica, for example) may damage the exposed face on which the adhesive film is not adhered or may be pushed into a small gap between the exposed face and the stacked object, thereby causing cracking or chipping of the semiconductor chips. Especially in the extremely thin semiconductor chips having thicknesses of 100 μm or less, such a problem is likely to occur.
Furthermore, the adhesive film also functions as an insulating material in some cases. In this case, if the back surface includes the exposed face which is not covered with the adhesive film as described above, the exposed portion may come into contact with a bonding wire of the semiconductor chip on the stacked object side, thereby causing electrical problems such as short circuiting and leakage. Therefore, it is preferable that the entire back surface of the semiconductor chip be covered with the adhesive film.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a device with a two-layered structure in which an adhesive film is adhered on a back surface of a chip such as a semiconductor chip, the device having a structure in which the entire back surface of the chip is covered with the adhesive film, and to provide a manufacturing method for the device.
According to the present invention, there is provided a device with a two-layered structure which includes a chip having a functional element on a front surface of the chip and an adhesive film adhered on a back surface of the chip, in which the adhesive film corresponds to at least the back surface of the chip and covers the entire back surface, and an outer periphery of the chip does not protrude from an outer periphery of the adhesive film.
With the device of the present invention, the entire back surface of the chip is protected by the adhesive film. Therefore, even if mold resin is filled in a periphery of the device, filler included in the mold resin does not enter the back surface of the chip, thereby avoiding problems such as damage to the chip by the filler. If the devices of the invention are stacked, the back surface of the chip is prevented from coming into contact with a bonding wire of the device on the stacked side because the adhesive film is interposed. Therefore, electrical problems such as short circuiting and leakage are prevented.
In the device of the invention, it is essential that the entire back surface of the chip be covered with the adhesive film. Furthermore, it is preferable that the adhesive film be larger than the back surface of the chip and have an extra portion extending from an edge of the back surface, because the back surface of the chip is further reliably sealed by the adhesive film.
A manufacturing method for the device, according to the present invention, is suitable for producing the above device of the invention and is a manufacturing method for a device with a two-layered structure including a chip having a functional element on the front surface of the chip and the adhesive film adhered on the back surface of the chip from the wafer on which a plurality of function elements is defined by predetermined division lines formed in a lattice shape on the front surface of the wafer, the method including: a division groove forming step for forming a division groove in a front surface of a wafer along a predetermined division line, the division groove having a depth corresponding to a thickness of the chip to be obtained; a protection film adhering step for adhering a protection film on the front surface of the wafer; a back surface grinding step for grinding a back surface of the wafer until the division groove appears to divide the wafer into the individual chips; an adhesive film adhering step for adhering the adhesive film on a back surface of the wafer divided into the plurality of chips and adhering a dicing tape on the adhesive film, the dicing tape supported by an annular frame and being extensible; and an adhesive film cutting step for stretching the dicing tape while retaining the frame to thereby cut the adhesive film along the division groove.
In the above manufacturing method, between the back surfaces of the adjacent chips separated from each other in the back surface grinding step, the adhesive film corresponding to the width of the division groove exists. The adhesive film between the chips is cut, and therefore the adhesive film tends to be cut at a position slightly outward from an edge of the chip. Therefore, the entire back surface of the chip is covered with the adhesive film, and an extra portion extending from the edge of the back surface of the chip is likely to be obtained.
In the manufacturing device of the present invention, instead of stretching the dicing tape as described above, it is possible to obtain the device by employing an adhesive film cutting step for applying a laser beam to the adhesive film through the division groove to thereby cut the adhesive film along the division groove after the adhesive film adhering step.
With the present invention, it is possible to obtain a device in which the entire back surface of a chip is reliably covered with an adhesive film. Therefore, it is possible to provide a device of high quality in which damage to the chip and electrical problems caused by exposure of a part of the back surface of the chip are prevented.
Manufacturing methods for the first to third embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
A reference numeral 1 in
The chip regions 3 are separated from each other by the manufacturing method of the present embodiment, and each of the regions becomes a chip 6 of a semiconductor chip (device) 5 with an adhesive film and which will be described later (see
(1) Division Groove Forming Step
As shown in
First, a structure of the dicing device 10 shown in
The chuck table mechanism 120 is disposed on one end side in the direction Y on the base 100 and includes: a pair of guide rails 121 fixed to the base 100 and extending in the direction X; a moving plate 122 slidably mounted onto the guide rails 121; a stage 124 supported on the moving plate 122 through a cylindrical post 123; a disk-shaped chuck table 125 rotatably mounted onto the stage 124; and a slide mechanism 130 for moving the moving plate 122 along the guide rails 121.
The chuck table 125 has a horizontal upper face and is rotated clockwise or counterclockwise by a rotary driving mechanism (not shown) housed in the post 123. The chuck table 125 is of a known vacuum chuck type. In other words, the chuck table 125 is formed with a large number of small suction holes communicating with the front surface and the back surface, and air suction ports of a vacuum device (not shown) are connected to the back surface side. If the vacuum device is operated, the wafer 1 is suctioned and held on the chuck table 125.
The slide mechanism 130 includes a spiral rod 131 disposed between the base 100 and the moving plate 122 and extending in the direction X, and a pulse motor 132 for driving the spiral rod 131 for rotation. The spiral rod 131 is screwed into and penetrates a bracket (not shown) formed to protrude from a lower face of the moving plate 122, and it is rotatably supported so as not to be movable in an axial direction. With this slide mechanism 130, if the spiral rod 131 is rotated by the pulse motor 132, the moving plate 122 is moved along the guide rails 121 in the direction X according to the rotating direction of the rod 131.
The cutting unit support mechanism 160 includes: a pair of guide rails 161 disposed and fixed on the base 100 and extending in the direction Y to form a T-shape together with the guide rails 121 of the chuck table mechanism 120; a moving table 162 slidably mounted onto the guide rails 161; and a slide mechanism 170 for moving the moving table 162 along the guide rails.
The moving table 162 is an L-shaped table having a horizontal plate portion 163 and a vertical plate portion 164 rising from one end portion in the direction X of the horizontal plate portion 163 (i.e., right end portion in a view along an arrow F in
The slide mechanism 170 has the same structure as the slide mechanism 130 of the chuck table mechanism 120 and includes a spiral rod 171 disposed between the base 100 and the horizontal plate portion 163 and extending in the direction Y, and a pulse motor 172 for driving this spiral rod 171 for rotation. The spiral rod 171 is screwed into and penetrates a bracket (not shown) formed to protrude from a lower face of the horizontal plate portion 163 and is rotatably supported so as not to be movable in an axial direction. With this slide mechanism 170, if the spiral rod 171 is rotated by the pulse motor 172, the moving table 162 is moved along the guide rails 161 in the direction Y according to a rotating direction of the rod 171.
The cutting unit 140 includes: a cylindrical housing 141 extending in the direction Y; a disk-shaped cutting blade 142 attached to a tip end on the chuck table mechanism 120 side of the housing 141; and an aligner 150 for locating a cutting line along which cutting is carried out by the cutting blade 142. The cutting unit 140 is mounted to a left face of the vertical plate portion 164 of the moving table 162 in a view along the arrow F so as to be able to move up and down through a housing holder 165.
The housing holder 165 is slidably mounted to a guide rail 166 formed on the left face of the vertical plate portion 164 and extending in the vertical direction. The holder 165 is raised and lowered along the guide rail 166 by a raising and lowering mechanism driven by a pulse motor 180 fixed onto the vertical plate portion 164. The housing 141 penetrates and is fixed to the housing holder 165. In this way, the cutting unit 140 can move up and down with the housing holder 165.
In the housing 141, a spindle extending in the direction Y and a motor for rotating the spindle (neither of which are shown) are housed. The cutting blade 142 is fixed to a tip end of the spindle. With an exposed lower portion of the cutting blade 142 rotating with the spindle, the division groove 7 is formed in the front surface of the wafer 1.
The aligner 150 is formed of a microscope, a CCD camera, or the like and has an image pickup portion 151 for capturing an image of a target at a tip end of the aligner 150. The aligner 150 is mounted to a tip end portion of the housing 141 in such a manner that the image pickup portion 151 is adjacent to the cutting feed direction (direction Y) of the cutting blade 142.
Next, an operation for forming the division groove 7 in the front surface of the wafer 1 by using the dicing device 10 having the above structure will be described. The dicing device 10 includes a control means for controlling various operations. First, the wafer 1 with its front surface facing up is placed on the chuck table 125 of the chuck table mechanism 120 and the vacuum device of the chuck table mechanism 120 is operated. As a result, the wafer 1 is suctioned and held on the chuck table 125. Next, the chuck table 125 is moved in the direction Y together with the moving plate 122 by the slide mechanism 130 to position the wafer 1 directly below the image pickup portion 151 of the aligner 150 that has been disposed on a movement line of the chuck table 125 in advance.
Then, an image of the street 2 on the front surface of the wafer 1 is captured by the aligner 150 and the chuck table 125 is rotated by the controller based on the captured image to align the wafer 1 with the cutting blade 142 so that the street 2 extending in one direction becomes parallel to the direction Y (i.e., a street 2 orthogonal to this street 2 extends in the direction X).
Moreover, with the controller, the image captured by the aligner 150 is subjected to image processing and a cutting operation pattern is determined and stored based on the processed image. The cutting operation pattern is a combination of an entering feed of the cutting blade 142 by movement of the cutting unit 140 in the direction Z, a cutting feed of the cutting blade 142 by movement of the chuck table 125 in the direction X, and indexing of the cutting blade 142 by movement of the cutting unit 140 in the direction Y for forming the division groove 7 of a slightly greater depth than the thickness of the chip 6 to be obtained in every street 2. An entering depth of the cutting blade 142 is set to a value slightly greater than the thickness of the chip 6 to be obtained as described above.
By means of the controller, the slide mechanisms 130 and 170 and the raising and lowering mechanism driven by the pulse motor 180 are actuated to follow the above stored cutting operation pattern. With the rotating cutting blade 142, the division grooves 7 along the streets 2 extending in the lattice shape are formed in the front surface of the wafer 1 as shown in
The division grooves 7 are first formed along the streets 2 extending in the direction Y by alternately repeating movement of the chuck table 125 in the direction Y and movement of the moving table 162 in the direction X. Next, the chuck table 125 is rotated 90°. Then, by alternately repeating movement of the chuck table 125 in the direction Y and movement of the cutting unit support mechanism 160 in the direction X again, the division grooves 7 are formed along the streets 2 orthogonal to the streets 2 along which the division grooves 7 have been formed already. Thus, the wafer 1 in the front surface of which the division grooves 7 are formed along all the streets 2 shown in
(2) Protection Film Adhering Step
On the entire front surface of the wafer 1 in which the division grooves 7 have been formed in the above manner, a protection film 8 is adhered as shown in
(3) Back Surface Grinding Step
Next, a back surface grinding step for grinding the back surface of the wafer 1 to reach the division grooves 7 to separate the chip regions 3 as individual chips 6 is carried out. For this step, as shown in
First, a structure of the grinding device 30 shown in
In an upper face of the table 311, a recessed area 313 is formed, and a stage 314 is provided for reciprocation in the direction Y in this recessed area 313. On opposite sides of a moving direction of the stage 314, bellows covers 315 and 316 for closing a moving path of the stage 314 to prevent grinding swarf from falling in the base 310 are provided. The stage 314 is caused to reciprocate in the direction Y by a driving mechanism (not shown) and the covers 315 and 316 expand and contract as the stage 314 moves.
On the stage 314, a chuck table 317 of the vacuum chuck type, which is similar to the chuck table 125 of the dicing device 10, is rotatably provided. The chuck table 317 is moved together with the stage 314 toward the wall portion 312 and is positioned in a machining area. Above the machining area, a grinding unit 320 is disposed.
The grinding unit 320 is supported through a feed mechanism 330 to be able to move up and down in the direction Z with respect to the wall portion 312. The feed mechanism 330 includes a pair of guide rails 331, a moving plate 332 for sliding along these guide rails 331, and a raising and lowering mechanism 333 for raising and lowering the moving plate 332 along the guide rails 331.
The grinding unit 320 includes a block 321 affixed to a front surface of the moving plate 332, a cylindrical housing 322 affixed to the block 321, a spindle 323 supported in the housing 322, and a servomotor 324 for driving the spindle 323 for rotation. To a lower end of the spindle 323, a disk-shaped wheel mount 325 is affixed. Moreover, to a lower face of this wheel mount 325, the grinding wheel 327, to a lower face of which a large number of chip-shaped grindstones 326 made of resin bond or the like are secured is affixed, as shown in
Next, the operation for grinding the back surface of the wafer 1 by using the grinding device 30 having the above structure will be described, the protection film 8 having been adhered on the front surface of the wafer 1. First, the wafer 1 is placed on the chuck table 317 with its back surface to be ground facing up, and the vacuum device is operated to hold the wafer 1 on the chuck table 317. Then, the stage 314 is moved to move the wafer 1 into the machining area below the grinding unit 320. In this case, the stage 314 is moved to a position such that at least a part of the wafer 1 on the wall portion 312 side and corresponding to a radius of the wafer 1 overlaps the grinding wheel 327.
From this state, the chuck table 317 is rotated to rotate the wafer 1. At the same time as this, the grinding wheel 327 of the grinding unit 320 is rotated by the servomotor 324 and the grinding unit 320 is slowly lowered at a predetermined speed by the feed mechanism 330. The rotating direction of the chuck table 317 may be the same as that of the grindstones 326 or may be the opposite.
As the grinding unit 320 moves down, the grindstones 326 of the rotating grinding wheel 327 press the back surface of the rotating wafer 1 with a predetermined load. Thus, the back surface side of the wafer 1 is ground flat. If grinding of the back surface of the wafer 1 proceeds, the grindstones 326 eventually reach the division grooves 7, and the division grooves 7 appear. If the thickness of the wafer 1 reaches the thickness of the chip 6 to be obtained, the grinding of the back surface is completed. As a result of the grinding of the back surface, the wafer 1 is divided into a plurality of chips 6 as shown in
(4) Adhesive Film Adhering Step
Next, an adhesive film 9 is adhered on the back surface of the wafer 1 in which the plurality of chips 6 obtained by division are connected to each other by the protection film 8 as shown in
As the dicing tape 41, a resin tape which is extensible is used. For example, tape formed by applying an acrylic resin adhesive having a thickness of about 5 μm to one face of a polyvinyl chloride sheet having a thickness of about 10 μm as a base material is used, for example. The dicing tape 41 is in a circular shape having a larger diameter than that of the adhesive film 9. The frame 40 is adhered on an adhesive side of an outer peripheral portion of the dicing tape 41, and the adhesive side on which the frame 40 is adhered is adhered on the adhesive film 9. Such adhering of the adhesive film 9 and the dicing tape 41 on the back surface of the wafer 1 can also be achieved by adhering a double-layered tape obtained by integrally forming the adhesive film 9 with the dicing tape 41.
(5) Adhesive Film Cutting Step
Next, an adhesive film cutting step for cutting the adhesive film 9 between the chips 6 to substantially divide the wafer 1 and to yield the semiconductor chips 5 in which the adhesive film 9 is adhered on the back surface of each individual chip 6 is carried out. For this purpose, a dividing device 50 for the wafer 1 shown in
In order to obtain the semiconductor chip 5 by using the dividing device 50, the wafer 1 is placed on the chuck table 504 with the dicing tape 41 side facing down, and the frame 40 is positioned under the held chips 502 as shown in
In this way, as shown in
In the above manner, the semiconductor chip 5 with the two-layered structure in which the adhesive film 9 is adhered on the back surface of the chip 6 as shown in the enlarged portion of
In the semiconductor chip 5 manufactured as described above, the entire back surface of the chip 6 is covered with the adhesive film 9, and the back surface is protected by the adhesive film 9. Therefore, when the semiconductor chip 5 is mounted on a mounting board and mold resin is filled in a periphery of the chip, filler included in the mold resin does not enter the back surface of the chip 6, thereby avoiding problems such as damage to the chip 6 by the filler. If the semiconductor chip 5 is applied to a stacked package such as an MCP (Multi-Chip Package) and an SiP (System in Package), the back surface of the chip 6 is prevented from coming into contact with a bonding wire of the semiconductor chip on the stacked side, because the adhesive film 9 is interposed therebetween. Therefore, electrical problems such as short circuiting and leakage are prevented.
Moreover, with the above manufacturing method, between the back surfaces of the adjacent chips 6 separated from each other in the back surface grinding step, the adhesive film 9 corresponding to the width of the division groove 7 exists. The adhesive film 9 between the chips 6 is cut, and therefore the adhesive film 9 tends to be cut in a slightly outer position from an edge of the chip 6 (e.g., a center portion of the width of the division groove 7). Therefore, the entire back surface of the chip 6 is covered with the adhesive film 9 and a surplus portion 9a of the adhesive film 9 extending from the edge of the back surface of the chip 6 is likely to be obtained. Due to the existence of this surplus portion 9a, the adhesive film 9 is larger than the back surface of the chip 6, and the back surface of the chip 6 is further reliably sealed.
Next, a manufacturing method for a second embodiment of the invention will be described. This manufacturing method is the same as that of the first embodiment up until the adhesive film adhering step and differs in the adhesive film cutting step after the adhesive film adhering step. In the adhesive film cutting step in the second embodiment, as shown in
Next, a manufacturing method for a third embodiment of the invention will be described.
(1) Back Surface Grinding Step
First, the back surface of the wafer 1 shown in
(2) Inside Modified Layer Forming Step
Then, the laser beam is applied to the insides of the streets 2 of the wafer 1 along the streets 2 to change the portion to which the laser beam is applied into the inside modified layer. This inside modified layer is a layer that has been melted and set again so that the layer is reduced in strength. The layer is modified so as to break when external force is applied to it. In order to form the inside modified layer, as shown in
(3) Adhesive Film Adhering Step
Similarly to the adhesive film adhering step in the first embodiment, the adhesive film 9 and the dicing tape 41 are adhered on the back surface of the wafer 1 in which the inside modified layer is formed along the streets 2 as shown in
(4) Dividing Step
Next, a dividing step for simultaneously dividing the wafer 1 into plural chips 6 and dividing the adhesive film 9 so that the separated films correspond to the chips 6 to thereby obtain the individual semiconductor chips 5 is carried out by utilizing the dividing device 50 used in the first embodiment. For this purpose, as shown in
As a result, as shown in
With the above second and third embodiments, similarly to the first embodiment, the semiconductor chip 5 with a two-layered structure in which the adhesive film 9 is adhered on the entire back surface of the chip 6 as shown in the enlarged portion of
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2005-265477 | Sep 2005 | JP | national |