1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to circuit boards, interconnect structures, and electronic devices, and particularly relate to a circuit board, an interconnect structure, and an electronic apparatus suitable for high circuit density.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the functionality and circuit density of electronic devices increase, the number of terminals of an electronic device (i.e., the number of flip-chip I/Os) increases, and, also, a bump pitch narrows. This gives rise to a need to provide high-density wiring for interconnection to bumps in the circuit substrate on which an electronic device is mounted. Such high-density wiring requires a more complex fabrication process, causing a drop in yield. In consideration of this, various studies have been conducted with respect to circuit boards having wiring structures suitable for an electronic device having high circuit density (see Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-244106 and No. 11-068298, for example).
As indicators of density, the ratios “(bump pitch)/(pad diameter)” and “(wire width)/(wire interval)” may be taken into consideration. These ratios will be described below by referring to a circuit board 1 shown in
The circuit board 1 shown in
The ratio “(bump pitch P)/(pad diameter D)” has exhibited changes over years such as (350 μm/200 μm)→(240 μm/110 μm)→(200 μm/90 μm). With respect to these ratios, the ratio “(wire width W)/(wire interval S)” required to provide two interconnect lines between the two adjacent pads is determined as (50 μm/50 μm)<(43 μm/43 μm) (36 μm/36 μm), respectively. Further, the ratio “(wire width W)/(wire interval S)” required to provide three interconnect lines between the two adjacent pads is determined as (30 μm/30 μm) D (26 μm/26 μm) (22 μm/22 μm), respectively. Based on this trend in the past, the bump pitch is expected to be narrowed to 100 μm or less in the near future.
If the pad diameter is set to 70 μm, for example, the ratio “(wire width W)/(wire interval S)” required to provide one interconnect line through a bump pitch of 100 μm is determined as (10 μm/10 μm). Further, the ratio “(wire width W)/(wire interval S)” required to provide two interconnect lines through a bump pitch of 100 μm is determined as (6 μm/6 μm).
The wire fabrication technology for a conventional circuit substrate (i.e., organic substrate) experiences a significant drop in yield as the wire width W becomes shorter than approximately 10 μm. It is almost impossible to use such technology for wire width shorter than 6 μm. As a method to provide fine interconnect wiring, wires may be formed by use of a sputtering technology on an inorganic substrate made of such material as ceramic or silicon. However, an increase in manufacturing cost is a problem.
Even if fine wires are properly formed, the wire resistance will increase due to the miniaturization. Further, the use of ceramic as substrate material gives rise to a problem in that parasitic capacitance associated with an increase in dielectric constant may create trouble.
Accordingly, there is a need for a circuit board, an interconnect structure, and an electronic apparatus that can attain high circuit density while achieving reduction in manufacturing cost and improvement in electrical characteristics.
It is a general object of at least one embodiment of the present invention to provide a circuit board, an electronic device packaging structure, and an electronic apparatus that may substantially eliminate one or more problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
According to one aspect of implementation, a circuit board on which an electronic device having bumps arranged in an array form is to be mounted includes a substrate having a multilayer structure that includes interconnect lines and insulating layers, and vias penetrating through one or more of the insulating layers and coupled to one or more of the interconnect lines, wherein the vias are arranged at positions that are the same as positions of the bumps to be connected on the substrate, and the vias project from a surface of the substrate so that upper-end portions of the vias are exposed from the surface of the substrate.
According to another aspect of implementation, an electronic device packaging structure includes a circuit board having a multilayered substrate including interconnect lines and insulating layers and first vias penetrating through one or more of the insulating layers, wherein an electronic device having bumps arranged in an array form is to be mounted on the circuit board, wherein second vias are formed at positions that are the same as positions of the bumps to be connected on the substrate, such that one end of each of the second vias is coupled to one or more of the interconnect lines, and another end of each of the second vias is exposed on a surface of the substrate, and wherein the bumps are to be connected to upper-end portions of the second vias to mount the electronic device to the circuit board.
According to another aspect of implementation, an electronic apparatus includes an electronic device having bumps arranged in an array form, and a circuit board having a multilayered substrate and vias, the multilayered substrate including interconnect lines and insulating layers, the vias connected to one or more of the interconnect lines and penetrating through one or more of the insulating layers, and the electronic device being mounted on the circuit board, wherein the vias are arranged at positions that are the same as positions of the bumps connected on the substrate, and the vias project from a surface of the substrate so that upper-end portions of the vias are exposed from the surface of the substrate, and wherein the bumps of the electronic device are in direct contact with the upper-end portions of the vias to establish electrical coupling.
According to at least one embodiment of the present invention, vias are arranged at the same positions as positions where the bumps are connected on the substrate, and the upper-end portions of the vias are exposed on the surface of the substrate. With this arrangement, the bumps of the electronic device can be directly connected to the upper-end portions of the vias. There is thus no need to form interconnect lines on the surface of the substrate. The inner interconnect lines coupled to the vias can be used to provide electrical coupling for the bumps.
In such a structure, the inner interconnect lines can be formed on a plurality of layers by use of a multilayer structure substrate. The interconnect lines connected to the bumps through the vias can thus be distributed to the inner interconnect layers, which helps to broaden the pitch of the inner interconnect lines on each layer. This makes it possible to provide the terminals of the electronic device at high density and also to produce the circuit board at low cost while maintaining high electrical characteristics.
Other objects and further features of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described by referring to the accompanying drawings.
The circuit board 10A is mainly comprised of a substrate 12 and pad-connection vias 13 (which are individually shown as 13A, 13B, 13C in
The substrate 12 has a multilayer structure in which insulating layers and interconnect lines are stacked one over another. The circuit board 10A according to the present embodiment has a three-layer structure in which insulating layers 17A through 17C and interconnect lines 14 are provided. In
The first through third insulating layers 17A through 17C are made of resin material such as epoxy-type resin or polyimide-type resin. The thickness of each of the insulating layers 17A through 17C may be 30 to 40 μm, for example. The interconnect lines 14 (i.e., outer-side interconnect lines 14A, center interconnect lines 14B, and inner-side interconnect lines 14C) are made of copper (Cu).
The pad-connection vias 13 have a lower-end portion in the thickness direction of the substrate 12 (i.e., an end on the Z1 side along an arrow Z1-Z2 as illustrated in
The pad-connection vias 13 are made of Cu like the interconnect lines 14. The pad-connection vias 13 have a via structure filled with Cu, i.e., with no void space inside, by an electroplating process or via-fill electroplating.
As shown in
In each of
In the following, a description will be given with respect to an arrangement for the placement of the pad-connection vias 13. As was previously described, the circuit board 10A according to the present embodiment has high wiring and packaging density so that the electronic device 15 having a large number of bumps 16 can be mounted in a flip-chip manner. To this end, the pad-connection vias 13A through 13C to be coupled to the bumps 16A through 16C are placed at high density on the surface 12a of the substrate 12.
As was described in connection with
The outer-side vias 13A are formed along a chain line D1 shown in
The outer-side vias 13A have an upper-end portion thereof (i.e., an end thereof on the Z2 side) projecting 10 to 20 μm, for example, from the surface 12a of the substrate 12. The lower-end portion of each outer-side via 13A (i.e., their end on the Z1 side) is coupled to the outer-side interconnect lines 14A formed on the surface 12a as shown in
Each center via 13B also has an upper-end portion thereof (i.e., an end thereof on the Z2 side) projecting from the surface 12a of the substrate 12, and the length of such projection is set equal to that of the outer-side vias 13A. The lower-end portion of each center via 13B (i.e., their end on the Z1 side) is coupled to the center interconnect lines 14B formed on an upper face of the second insulating layer 17B as shown in
Each inner-side via 13C also has an upper-end portion thereof (i.e., an end thereof on the Z2 side) projecting from the surface 12a of the substrate 12, and the length of such projection is set equal to those of the other vias 13A and 13B. The lower-end portion of each inner-side via 13C (i.e., their end on the Z1 side) is coupled to the inner-side interconnect lines 14C formed on an upper face of the third insulating layer 17C as shown in
The length of the upper-end portion projections of the vias 13A through 13C from the surface 12a of the substrate 12 may be set to 20 μm. The diameter of the upper-end portion of each of the vias 13A through 13C may be set to 60 to 80 μm. From the viewpoint of high-density implementation, the diameter of an upper-end portion of each via 13A through 13C may preferably be set equal to the diameter of each bump 16A through 16C of the electronic device 15.
Further, an end of each of the outer-side interconnect lines 14A (i.e., an end on the X1 side in
Further, an end of each of the center interconnect lines 14B (i.e., an end on the X1 side in
Further, an end of each of the inner-side interconnect lines 14C (i.e., an end on the X1 side in
Attention is now focused on the space between the interconnect lines 14A through 14C formed on the upper faces of the insulating layers 17A through 17C, which constitute the substrate 12.
In the circuit board 10A according to the present embodiment, the interconnect lines formed on the upper face of the first insulating layer 17A (i.e., the interconnect lines exposed on the upper surface of the first insulating layer 17A) only consist of the outer-side interconnect lines 14A. Even when the pitch P of the outer-side vias 13A is shorter than 100 μm, therefore, the distance S between two adjacent ones of the outer-side interconnect lines 14A can be set relatively wide. Specifically, the spacing distance S can be set approximately equal to the pitch P.
In the circuit board 10A according to the present embodiment, the interconnect lines formed on the upper face of the second insulating layer 17B (i.e., the interconnect lines exposed on the upper surface of the second insulating layer 17B) only consist of the center interconnect lines 14B. On the upper face of the second insulating layer 17B, thus, the space S between two adjacent ones of the center interconnect lines 14B can be set wide.
In the circuit board 10A according to the present embodiment, the interconnect lines formed on the upper face of the third insulating layer 17C (i.e., the interconnect lines exposed on the upper surface of the third insulating layer 17C) only consist of the inner-side interconnect lines 14C. On the upper face of the third insulating layer 17C, thus, the interval S between two adjacent ones of the inner-side interconnect lines 14C can be set wide.
According to the circuit board 10A of the present embodiment described above, the provision of the pad-connection vias 13 (i.e., 13A through 13C) having Cu filling inside and projecting from the surface 12a of the substrate 12 at the positions where bumps are to be coupled makes it possible to directly connect the bumps 16 (i.e., 16A through 16C) of the electronic device 15 to the upper-end portions of the pad-connection vias 13 (i.e., 13A through 13C).
With such provision, there is no need to place all the interconnect lines on the surface 12a of the substrate 12. The interconnect lines 14 (i.e., 14A through 14C) coupled to the pad-connection vias 13 (i.e., 13A through 13C) can thus be distributed to various locations inside the substrate 12.
As a result, even when the pad-connection vias 13 (i.e., 13A through 13C) exposed on the surface 12a of the substrate 12 have a narrow pitch, the pitch of the interconnect lines 14 (i.e., 14A through 14C) formed on each of the insulating layers 17A through 17C can be set wider. This makes it possible to provide the terminals (i.e., bumps 16) of the electronic device 15 at a high density and also to produce the circuit board 10A at a low cost while maintaining high electrical characteristics.
Further, the interconnect lines 14 connected to the pad-connection vias 13 are distributed to the surfaces of the insulating layers 17A through 17C. This provides latitude in the layout of the pad-connection vias 13 on the surface 12a of the substrate 12. As in circuit boards 10B and 10C shown in
In the following, a method of forming the pad-connection vias 13 having the above-described configuration will be described by referring to
In order to form a center via 13B, the first insulating layer 17A is formed over the second insulating layer 17B on which a center interconnect line 14B having a predetermined pattern is formed beforehand, thereby producing the substrate 12. Stacking of the first insulating layer 17A over the second insulating layer 17B can be performed by use of a well-known buildup method. The center interconnect line 14B may be formed by use of semi-additive method, for example. Instead of the semi-additive method, other interconnect-line forming methods may be employed such as a subtractive method or the like.
After the substrate 12 is produced, a via opening 22 is formed by a laser process at the position where a center via 13B is to be formed. The creation of the via opening 22 makes a portion of the center interconnect line 14B exposed.
After this, a Cu seed layer 23 is formed by electroless plating or sputtering on the inner wall of the via opening 22 and the upper face of the first insulating layer 17A.
A resist 24 is then formed on the upper face of the first insulating layer 17A, except for the position of the via opening 22. The thickness of the resist 24 may preferably be 10 μm, for example.
After the resist 24 is formed as described above, Cu electrolytic plating is performed by using as a power feeding layer the center interconnect line 14B and the Cu seed layer 23 electrically coupled to the center interconnect line 14B. In so doing, via-fill plating is performed in the present embodiment, This via-fill plating performs plating by adding to a plating bath an inhibitor for inhibiting the growth of plating and an accelerator for accelerating the growth of plating.
By use of this method, Cu is provided preferentially inside the via opening 22, thereby efficiently filling the via opening 22 with Cu. The center via 13B that is formed by the via-fill plating method has an upper-end portion having a flat surface as shown in
After the center via 13B is formed as described above, the resist 24 and the seed layer 23 are removed. The center via 13B as shown in
In the following, another method of forming the center vias 13B will be described by referring to
In the electrolytic plating using the center interconnect line 14B and the seed layer 23 as a power feed layer, a normal plating method is used in this embodiment to plate Cu in the via opening 22, rather than using a via-fill plating method as used in the embodiment shown in
After the center via 13B is formed as described above, the resist 25 and the seed layer 23 are removed. The center via 13B as shown in
The center via 13B having its lower-end portion connected to the center interconnect line 14B and its upper-end portion projecting from the surface 12a of the substrate 12 can be easily formed by use of a well-known technology such as buildup method, semi-additive method, via-fill plating method, or the like. Accordingly, the circuit board 10A configured to have the pad-connection vias 13 can be manufactured while suppressing an increase in production cost.
Further, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, but various variations and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The present application is based on Japanese priority application No. 2007-307857 filed on Nov. 28, 2007, with the Japanese Patent Office, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007-307857 | Nov 2007 | JP | national |