Integrated circuits may be formed on semiconductor wafers made of materials such as silicon. The semiconductor wafers are processed to form various electronic devices. The wafers are diced into semiconductor chips (a chip is also known as a die), which may then be attached to a package substrate using a variety of known methods. The package substrate may then be attached to a printed circuit board (PCB) such as a motherboard. One type of package substrate is a ball grid array (BGA), which includes a plurality of solder balls on the land side of the package. The die side of the package substrate may be electrically coupled to the land side using internal routing through the substrate. The BGA package including the solder balls on the land side is positioned on a PCB, then heated to reflow the solder balls and form a joint to couple the package to the PCB.
Embodiments are described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to scale, wherein:
As electronic devices continue to decrease in size, reduction of the height of the electronic assembly becomes essential. Conventional BGA packages utilize solder balls on the land surface of the package to attach the package to a board. Certain embodiments relate to assemblies and the formation of assemblies in which non-solder metal bumps are used to couple a package to a board, and solder balls are not used. It is expected that the height of the assembly can be substantially decreased by utilizing the non-solder metal bumps.
The substrate 20 includes a plurality of pads 22 on a land side opposite the die side. As illustrated in
In certain embodiments, the non-solder metal bumps may be formed on pre-existing bonding pads using any suitable process, for example, a wet plating process that plates the bumps directly onto the metal of the bonding pads. The bumps may then be processed to form a specific shape using any suitable method, for example, etching. If desired, a suitable protective layer (for example, a gold layer or OSP (organic solderability preservative) layer) may be provided on the bump for protection from oxidation and other damage. Depending on the material used, the protective layer may remain on the surface or may be removed during assembly processing.
As illustrated in
The bumps 24 may be formed using a suitable plating process. In certain embodiments, both the bonding pads 22 and the bumps 24 may be formed from copper. As illustrated in
It should be appreciated that the design and positioning of the pads in relation to the surfaces of the package substrate and the board (e.g., extending outward, flush with, or recessed) may vary depending on the specific design of the substrate and board, and may take forms different from those illustrated. In addition, in certain embodiments, instead of providing bonding pads and then forming non-solder metal bumps thereon, a single operation may be used to form the non-solder metal bumps without first forming pads.
In addition, as illustrated in certain of the Figures, the non-solder metal bumps are illustrated as having shapes including a curved (convex) surface, a flat surface, and flat sides with a curved lower surface. These configurations may be seen, for example, within the blown up regions of
Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following advantages when compared with conventional BGA package assemblies and manufacturing processes. First, in accordance with certain embodiments, fewer processing operations may be needed when utilizing non-solder metal bumps than when utilizing conventional solder balls. For example, a conventional BGA processing operation may include the following operations: (i) screen printing solder paste onto pads on the land side of a package substrate; (ii) placing solder balls onto the paste on the pads; (iii) heating and reflowing the solder to attach the solder balls to the pads on the package substrate; (iv) screen printing solder paste onto pads on the board; (v) bringing the solder balls on the package substrate into contact with the solder paste on the board pads; (vi) heating the solder to reflow and form a bond between the package substrate and the board. When utilizing the non-solder metal bumps in accordance with certain embodiments, fewer operations are needed. For example, the bumps may in certain embodiments be formed using a plating process to plate the bumps onto the pads on the package substrate. By forming the bumps on the package substrate pads, the operations (i), (ii), and (iii) above, including screen printing, picking and placing solder balls, and heating the solder, are not necessary.
Second, the height of the non-solder metal bumps may be substantially less than that of a solder ball. In certain embodiments, it is expected that the bump height will be about one half or less than that of conventional solder balls. For example, typical BGA solder ball heights are in the range of 400-600 microns, whereas in certain embodiments non-solder metal bump height may be in the range of 150-300 microns. Other heights are also possible. For small pitch devices (including, but not limited to, assemblies used in cell phones), certain embodiments may include bump sizes in the range of 100 to 200 microns.
Third, a problem with the use of solder balls in conventional BGA assemblies is the collapse of the solder during subsequent heating operations. As a result of this problem, separate stand-off structures may be formed on the surface of the board or package substrate in order to ensure that a minimum distance between the package substrate and board is maintained. The non-solder metal bumps, which melt at a higher temperature than solder balls, can provide the same effect as a separate stand-off structure in maintaining a minimum distance between the package substrate and the board during subsequent heating operations.
Assemblies including components formed as described in embodiments above may find application in a variety of electronic components.
The system 401 of
The system 401 may further include memory 409 and one or more controllers 411a, 411b . . . 411n, which are also disposed on the motherboard 407. The motherboard 407 may be a single layer or multi-layered board which has a plurality of conductive lines that provide communication between the circuits in the package 405 and other components mounted to the board 407. Alternatively, one or more of the CPU 403, memory 409 and controllers 411a, 411b . . . 411n may be disposed on other cards such as daughter cards or expansion cards. The CPU 403, memory 409 and controllers 411a, 411b . . . 411n may each be seated in individual sockets or may be connected directly to a printed circuit board or all integrated in the same package. A display 415 may also be included.
Any suitable operating system and various applications execute on the CPU 403 and reside in the memory 409. The content residing in memory 409 may be cached in accordance with known caching techniques. Programs and data in memory 409 may be swapped into storage 413 as part of memory management operations. The system 401 may comprise any suitable computing device, including, but not limited to, a mainframe, server, personal computer, workstation, laptop, handheld computer, netbook, tablet, book reader, handheld gaming device, handheld entertainment device (for example, MP3 (moving picture experts group layer-3 audio) player), PDA (personal digital assistant) telephony device (wireless or wired), network appliance, virtualization device, storage controller, network controller, router, etc.
The controllers 411a, 411b . . . 411n may include one or more of a system controller, peripheral controller, memory controller, hub controller, I/O (input/output) bus controller, video controller, network controller, storage controller, communications controller, etc. For example, a storage controller can control the reading of data from and the writing of data to the storage 413 in accordance with a storage protocol layer. The storage protocol of the layer may be any of a number of known storage protocols. Data being written to or read from the storage 413 may be cached in accordance with known caching techniques. A network controller can include one or more protocol layers to send and receive network packets to and from remote devices over a network 417. The network 417 may comprise a Local Area Network (LAN), the Internet, a Wide Area Network (WAN), Storage Area Network (SAN), etc. Embodiments may be configured to transmit and receive data over a wireless network or connection. In certain embodiments, the network controller and various protocol layers may employ the Ethernet protocol over unshielded twisted pair cable, token ring protocol, Fibre Channel protocol, etc., or any other suitable network communication protocol.
Terms such as “first”, “second”, and the like as used herein to not necessarily denote any particular order, quantity, or importance, but are used to distinguish one element from another. Terms such as “upper” and “lower” and the like as used herein refer to the orientation of features as illustrated in the attached figures.
While certain exemplary embodiments have been described above and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such embodiments are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and that embodiments are not restricted to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described since modifications may occur to those having ordinary skill in the art.