Patent Application
20050087883
The present invention relates in general to the design and fabrication methods of semiconductor flip chip packages utilizing solder bumped interconnections.
The following three U.S. Patents relate in general to the design and methods of fabrication of semiconductor packages utilizing solder ball interconnections.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,441,487B2 dated Aug. 27, 2002, issued to P. Elenius et al., describes a chip scale flip chip package utilizing large ductile solder balls.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,429,530B1 dated Aug. 6, 2002, issued to W. T. Y. Chen describes a miniaturized chip scale ball grid array package using a solder bumped chip carrier.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,234B1 dated Feb. 5, 2002, issued to H. M. Dalal et al. describes a method for forming reflowed solder balls utilizing a metal cap of low temperature wetting material over the solder balls.
The advent of VLSI technology in the semiconductor field has resulted in the demand for high density packaging. Semiconductor packaging traditionally has three levels of package. The first level, a single chip module is made up of a semiconductor chip attached to a substrate that includes interconnections to the next level of package. The substrate and chip assembly is usually molded in an encapsulant for environmental protection. The second level of package, usually a printed circuit card mounts and interconnects the single chip modules and has a connector system to the third level package, usually a planar printed circuit board.
The utilization of VLSI semiconductor chips in commercial electronic products such as cameras, camcorders, DVD players, etc., has demanded that semiconductor packages be highly reliable and space efficient in their designs. In addition military applications require lightweight, space efficient, highly reliable packaging structures.
Elimination of a level of package has been a driving force in electronic system design in the recent past. This reduction in packaging level would allow for closer spacing of semiconductor chips thereby reducing signal delay times. In addition the reduction of a level of package would increase product reliability and decrease product costs. One design currently in use is direct chip attach. In this design chips are flip chip mounted onto a substrate, usually ceramic, and the assembly sealed in an enclosure for environmental protection. The environmental protection is required to protect the semiconductor and the interconnections against corrosive elements and mechanical disturbances. The inclusion of enclosures for environmental protection results in larger packages with longer distances between semiconductor chips and thereby longer signal delays.
In addition, advances in VLSI technology in the semiconductor field has created the need for higher interconnection density on the surface of the semiconductor chip. These interconnections are used to connect the chip terminals to the next level of package or printed circuit board. The need for higher density interconnections results from the smaller circuit devices fabricated by the recent manufacturing advances. The smaller circuits in turn result in higher circuit counts per chip. The higher circuit count requires more signal input, and signal output connections; in addition the higher circuit count requires more power to be delivered to the chip requiring more power connections. This need for higher interconnection density has resulted in interconnection techniques such as solder bumps that are capable of utilizing the total area of the chip thus providing more interconnections per chip.
Solder bump or solder ball technology for the interconnection of semiconductor chips to the next level of package have been developed and in use over a period of years. The advent of portable devices in the electronics industry has introduced the need for smaller, lighter, and cost effective products. These demands have resulted in the development of fabrication methods that are less complex as well as designs that eliminate a level of package; i.e., chip scale packaging.
The use of solder bumped semiconductor chips requires that the design of the package and methods of fabrication is capable of providing appropriate interconnect contacts. These interconnect contacts need to have a wettable surface that mates with the chip solder bumps and also constrains the solder into a spherical shape for proper function. This requirement has resulted in package designs and methods of fabrication that are complicated and costly.
Another method that has been used is the application of a layer of low melting solder on the surface of the solder bumps. When reflowed the low melt solder becomes liquid and metallurgically joins to the substrate pads while the higher melting solder of the solder bump maintains its shape.
Accordingly, it is an object of one or more embodiments of the present intention to provide a design and method of fabrication to simplify the process of providing a semiconductor package with metal contact pads for assembling a solder bumped semiconductor chip.
Another object of one or more embodiments of the present invention is to provide a method of fabrication that will contain the solder of the solder bumps in its desired shape.
It is a further object of one or more embodiments of the present invention that the method of fabrication utilizes presently used processes.
The above objectives are achieved by one or more embodiments of the present invention by the use of a no-flow underfill material between the semiconductor chip and the package. The no-flow underfill supports the chip structure during the assembly operation and controls the flow of the solder.
The present invention will be more clearly understood from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like reference numerals designate similar or corresponding elements, regions and portions in which:
The demands of electronic products for highly space efficient, cost effective, and reliable components have resulted in the development of semiconductor chip packaging designs and methods of fabrication that are compact and cost efficient. One of these designs eliminates the level of package by directly mounting the semiconductor chip onto a printed circuit card or printed circuit board. The conventional approach of employing a substrate mounted semiconductor chip can be made more space and cost efficient by utilizing materials and fabrication methods that simplify the design and the process.
In packaging semiconductor chips with solder bumps on the front face of the chip, the solder bumps are utilized for interconnections to the next level of package. Generally these interconnections are an array of solder balls that are used for input-output signals and power connections to the semiconductor chip. The solder balls are metallurgically bonded to the next level of package during assembly.
A semiconductor package utilizing solder bump interconnections for interconnecting a semiconductor chip to the package is designed to ensure that the assembly processes provide the properly designed solder ball contact pads both on the semiconductor chip and the package.
On the semiconductor chip the contact pads are formed during wafer processing. Contact pad metallurgy referred to as under bump metallurgy or UBM is deposited over semiconductor chip pads. The contact pads, usually circular, constrain the solder of the solder bumps during the reflow attachment process to the next level of package, so as to provide a functional and reliable electrical interconnection.
The design of the package contact pads and metallurgy has employed many design and fabrication methods for solder containment. On packages with surface metallurgy, in the prior art, a layer of insulating non-wetting material such as epoxy is patterned on the surface of the substrate as shown in
The embodiment of the present invention utilizes a no-flow underfill, epoxy resin based material, to constrain the solder and the solder bump after reflow. This design and method of assembly does not require a non-wetting surface on the substrate or a multi-temperature metallurgy on the semiconductor chip solder bumps.
The reflow process has metallurgically bonded the solder bumps 12 to the substrate metallurgy 16. The no-flow underfill 20 has constrained the solder and prevented solder flow along any of the metallized lines of the substrate.
Although the invention has been described and illustrated with reference to specific illustrative embodiments thereof, it is not intended that the invention be limited to those illustrative embodiments. Those skilled in the art will recognize that variations and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended to include within the invention all such variations and modifications which fall within the scope of the appended claims and equivalents thereof
