Patent Application
20230197320
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to heat dissipating structures and methods of manufacture.
Thermal design is an important consideration in semiconductor devices. An optimized thermal design of a device enables better power levels, topologies and applications. Thermal design typically includes the use of a heat sink to dissipate heat away from heat generating devices and/or structures.
In an aspect of the disclosure, a structure comprises: a thin film resistor within a back end of the line structure; and a heat dissipating structure below the thin film resistor comprising a top plate with a slotted configuration, and within the back end of the line structure.
In an aspect of the disclosure, a structure comprises: a thin film resistor within insulator material; a heat dissipating plate separated from the thin film resistor by insulator material; and a plurality of heat dissipating via connections contacting the heat dissipating plate from a bottom surface, the plurality of heat dissipating via connections being in the insulator material.
In an aspect of the disclosure, a method comprises: forming a thin film resistor within a back end of the line structure; and forming a heat dissipating structure below the thin film resistor comprising a top plate with a slotted configuration, and within the back end of the line structure.
The present disclosure is described in the detailed description which follows, in reference to the noted plurality of drawings by way of non-limiting examples of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to heat dissipating structures and methods of manufacture. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to heat dissipating structures used with and to dissipate heat generated from thin film resistors. Advantageously, the heat dissipating structures provide a more efficient thermal dissipator while stabilizing a sheet resistance (Rsh) shift in the thin film resistors during high current operation (compared to conventional structures). The heat dissipating structures also eliminate a short risk through the use of a slotted design.
In more specific embodiments, the heat dissipating structures are provided under a thin film resistor for dissipating heat generated from the thin film resistor. In embodiments, the thin film resistor may be a SiCr thin film resistor, although other material compositions are contemplated herein to be used with the heat dissipating structures. The heat dissipating structures may include a slotted design in order to avoid shorting between the contacts of the thin film resistor and underlying metal structures of the heat dissipating structures. The heat dissipating structures may comprise one or more metal plates (e.g., layers) and a sea of via connections connecting to the plates. The metal plates and via connections may be formed in back-end-of-line (BEOL) processes of an integrated circuit (IC) chip, e.g., SiCr based thin film resistor in Copper (Cu) or Aluminum (Al) BEOL.
The heat dissipating structures of the present disclosure can be manufactured in a number of ways using a number of different tools. In general, though, the methodologies and tools are used to form structures with dimensions in the micrometer and nanometer scale. The methodologies, i.e., technologies, employed to manufacture the heat dissipating structures of the present disclosure have been adopted from integrated circuit (IC) technology. For example, the structures are built on wafers and are realized in films of material patterned by photolithographic processes on the top of a wafer. In particular, the fabrication of the heat dissipating structures uses three basic building blocks: (i) deposition of thin films of material on a substrate, (ii) applying a patterned mask on top of the films by photolithographic imaging, and (iii) etching the films selectively to the mask. In addition, precleaning processes may be used to clean etched surfaces of any contaminants, as is known in the art. Moreover, when necessary, rapid thermal anneal processes may be used to increase material utilization and compositional control due to minimal elements diffusion as is known in the art.
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The heat dissipating structure 15 comprises a plurality of heat dissipating plates 14a, 14b connected together by a plurality of heat dissipating via connections 16. In embodiments, the plurality of heat dissipating via connections 16 make direct contact with a bottom heat dissipating plate 14a and a top heat dissipating plate 14b. In this way, the plurality of heat dissipating plates 14a, 14b and the plurality of heat dissipating via connections 16 are a single structure acting as a heat sink to remove heat generated from the thin film resistor 18. In embodiments, the combination of the top heat dissipating plate 14b and the heat dissipating via connections 16 may be dual damascene or single damascene structures, as examples.
The bottom heat dissipating plate 14a and the top heat dissipating plate 14b may be solid metal plates provided within the layers 12a, 12b of the interlevel dielectric material 12. The top heat dissipating plate 14b may be separated from the thin film resistor 18 by insulator layer 12b, e.g., nitride material. Also, in embodiments, the top heat dissipating plate 14b may be at least the same size as the thin film resistor 18, e.g., equal to or larger footprint. The plurality of heat dissipating plates 14a, 14b and the plurality of heat dissipating via connections 16 may be comprised of heat dissipating materials, e.g., metal materials. For example, the plurality of heat dissipating plates 14a, 14b and the plurality of heat dissipating via connections 16 may be Cu, W or Al, or combinations thereof, amongst other heat dissipating materials.
Moreover, the top heat dissipating plate 14b may include a slot 14c aligned with via connections 20 connecting to the thin film resistor 18. In preferred embodiments, the thin film resistor 18 may be positioned between the slots 14c. The via connections 20 are used to bias the thin film resistor 18. For this to occur, the via connections 20 contact the thin film resistor 18 and upper wiring structures 22.
In embodiments, the slots 14c may be rectangular, square, oval, circular or other shape, filled with the interlevel dielectric material 12. In further embodiments, the slots 14c may be equal to or larger than the size of the via connections 20 to ensure that the via connections 20 do not contact or electrically short to the top heat dissipating plate 14b. For example, during an etching process in the interlevel dielectric material 12 to form vias, a punch though may occur resulting in exposure of the top heat dissipating plate 14b. This being the case, deposition of conductive material to form the via connections 20 may result in electrical contact between the top heat dissipating plate 14b and the via connections 20 resulting in an electrical short. However, due to the slotted configuration of the top heat dissipating plate 14b, even if punch through occurs during the fabrication processes, e.g., etching process, the via connections 20 would land on insulator material and the top heat dissipating plate 14b will remain isolated from the via connections 20, hence preventing electrical shorting.
The bottom heat dissipating plate 14a may be formed in insulator layer 12a (oxide) of the interlevel dielectric material 12 using conventional lithography, etching and deposition methods known to those of skill in the art. For example, a resist formed over the insulator layer 12a is exposed to energy (light) to form a pattern (opening). An etching process with a selective chemistry, e.g., reactive ion etching (RIE), will be used to transfer the pattern from the patterned photoresist layer into the insulator layer 12a to form a trench in the insulator layer 12a. Following the resist removal by a conventional oxygen ashing process or other known stripants, conductive material can be deposited by any conventional deposition processes, e.g., chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), or electrochemical plating (ECP) processes, to form the bottom heat dissipating plate 14a. Any residual conductive material on the surface of the insulator layer 12a may be removed by conventional chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) processes.
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The heat dissipating structures can be utilized in system on chip (SoC) technology. The SoC is an integrated circuit (also known as a “chip”) that integrates all components of an electronic system on a single chip or substrate. As the components are integrated on a single substrate, SoCs consume much less power and take up much less area than multichip designs with equivalent functionality. Because of this, SoCs are becoming the dominant force in the mobile computing (such as in Smartphones) and edge computing markets. SoC is also used in embedded systems and the Internet of Things.
The method(s) as described above is used in the fabrication of integrated circuit chips. The resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die, or in a packaged form. In the latter case the chip is mounted in a single chip package (such as a plastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or other higher level carrier) or in a multichip package (such as a ceramic carrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buried interconnections). In any case the chip is then integrated with other chips, discrete circuit elements, and/or other signal processing devices as part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or (b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includes integrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-end applications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboard or other input device, and a central processor.
The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present disclosure have been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.
