The invention relates to a semiconductor chip having a bump electrode.
In recent years, there has been a strong tendency toward reduced size in electronic devices, and progress has been made in enhancing functional integration and accelerating signal processing speeds. In association with this, the wiring of semiconductor chips has become thinner and the insulating layers and wiring layers of semiconductor chips have become more fragile. Furthermore, electrode pitches of 100 μm or less have come to be demanded.
As shown in
More specifically, as shown in
However, if warping occurs as shown in
It is technically very difficult to mount a semiconductor chip on a wiring substrate using a bump electrode in the case of fragile wiring layers and narrow electrodes which result when the electrode pitch is made narrow. Structures and methods which enable easy assembling even under low load and with narrow pitch have been discussed.
Therefore, Patent Document 1 describes a semiconductor chip 3 wherein, instead of the bump electrode 4 which is formed entirely of gold (Au), a vertically long core 10 made of an insulating material is provided on an electrode pad 6 and a metal film 11 is provided from the surface of the core 10 through to the electrode pad 6.
A semiconductor device in which this semiconductor chip 3 is flip-chip mounted on a substrate 1 is assembled as shown in
In
Patent Document 2 describes a semiconductor chip 3 in which an elastic body 20 is formed on an electrode pad 6 as shown in
Technology whereby a semiconductor chip 3 is connected by soldering to a substrate 25, rather than pressing a semiconductor chip 3 against a substrate 1 and in this state electrically connecting the same by curing a thermosetting resin 5, is described in Patent Document 3. As shown in
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H3-62927 (FIG. 2)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H1-233741 (FIG. 1)
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-174050 (FIG. 17)
In the composition in Patent Document 1, since the semiconductor chip 3 is flip-chip mounted on the substrate 1 in a state where the core 10 is elastically deformed, then if warping has occurred in the semiconductor chip 3 after mounting, this acts so as to recover the shape of the core 10 in a direction which eliminates the gap 9 that occurs in the prior art between the metal layer 11 and the wire electrode 2, thereby improving the rate of occurrence of conduction defects.
However, generally, there remains a problem in that conduction defects are liable to occur due to the occurrence of rupture of the metal film 11 as a result of an increase in the amount of deformation of the core 10 when assembled on the semiconductor device.
This is described in more detail below.
In the composition described in Patent Document 1, since the thin metal layer 11 is formed by sputtering or the like, on the surface of the core 10, then if the core 10 and a projecting electrode consisting of the metal film 11 lean or fall over or if a crack occurs in the metal layer 11 due to large deformation of the core 10 into a spherical shape, when the semiconductor chip 3 is flip-chip mounted, then the electrical connection becomes instable (for instance, the connection resistance varies).
Furthermore, since the core 10 is formed broadly on the electrode pad on the surface of the semiconductor chip, the electrical connection area of the metal layer 11 is small and there is a risk of the connection resistance becoming high.
In the composition described in Patent Document 2, since the elastic body 20 is formed over the electrode pad 6, then although it is possible to reduce a portion of an impact which acts from the bump electrode 21, the impact acts on the electrode pad 6 from the bump electrode 21 without passing through the elastic body 20, and therefore cracks are liable to occur and the electrical resistance becomes instable even in this case.
In the composition described in Patent Document 3, since the low-melting-point solder 23 is melted and solidified to form an electrical connection, elastic deformation of the resin 29 does not occur in a completed state of connection. This Patent Document 3 has the object of avoiding detachment of the pad 6 and the periphery thereof in response to a lateral load after the completion of connection, but does not have the object of damping an impact which occurs in cases where a semiconductor chip 3 is pressed against a substrate 1 and electrically connected in this state by curing a thermosetting resin 5.
The present invention has the object of providing a semiconductor chip and a semiconductor device in which it is possible to achieve a state of good electrical connection with a substrate when the semiconductor chip is pressed against the substrate and electrically connected in this state by curing a resin, rather than connecting the semiconductor chip to the substrate by soldering.
In a semiconductor chip according to the present invention, a flat-shaped table electrode having a larger surface area than the tip of a bump electrode, a smaller thickness than the height of the bump electrode and a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode is interposed between the bump electrode and an electrode pad formed on the surface of the semiconductor chip; and the table electrode is formed by forming a plurality of cores having a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode on top of the electrode pad and covering the surfaces of the cores with a conductive electrode.
More specifically, the plurality of cores are flat and arranged in a ring shape on the electrode pad.
Furthermore, specifically, the plurality of cores are flat cores made of electrically insulating resin or conductive resin and formed on the electrode pad.
Moreover, specifically, the table electrode is formed by disposing the plurality of cores having a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode in a distributed fashion separated from one another on the electrode pad, and covering the surfaces of the cores and gaps between the adjacent cores with the conductive electrode.
Furthermore, specifically, in any one of the compositions described above, the planar shape of the semiconductor chip is rectangular, and a plurality of the electrode pads are formed on the surface of the semiconductor chip following the outer shape thereof, and the surface area of the cores in the corner portions of the surface of the semiconductor chip is made greater than the surface area of the cores in the periphery of the corner portions.
By adopting this composition, since a flat-shaped table electrode having a larger surface area than the tip of a bump electrode, a smaller thickness than the height of the bump electrode and a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode is interposed between the bump electrode and an electrode pad formed on the surface of a semiconductor chip, and furthermore since the table electrode is formed by forming a plurality of cores having a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode on top of the electrode pad and covering the surfaces of the cores with a conductive electrode, then an impact acting on the semiconductor chip when the bump electrode is pressed against a substrate and is deformed plastically can be damped by the table electrode, in addition to which a better state of electrical connection with the substrate can be achieved due to the bump electrode which has a larger Young's modulus deforming to a greater extent than the table electrode which has a smaller Young's modulus.
Below, a semiconductor chip according to the present invention is described on the basis of reference modes and specific embodiments.
(First Reference Mode)
Each of the electrodes 12 is composed as shown in
A bump electrode 14 is formed via a table electrode 13 on an electrode pad 6 formed on the surface of the semiconductor chip 3. The bump electrode 14 is formed entirely of a material which deforms relatively easily, for example, gold (the Young's modulus of gold is 78.0 GPa), and the tip end thereof is narrower and more pointed than the base end. This bump electrode 14 deforms plastically under pressure applied during mounting as described below.
The table electrode 13 is formed by covering the surface of a flat core 15 formed on the electrode pad 6 with a conductive electrode 16. The diameter of the core 15 is greater than the diameter of the tip end of the bump electrode 14.
In configuration, the table electrode 13 is thinner than the height of the bump electrode 14 and has a flat shape with a larger surface area than a tip 14a of the bump electrode 14, and more specifically, if the height of the bump electrode 14 is 5 to 50 μm, and the diameter of the tip 14a of the bump electrode 14 is 1 to 43 μm, then the size of the table electrode 13 is 10 to 65 μm in diameter×2 to 5 μm in thickness, and the table electrode 13 has a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode 14. More specifically, the ratio between the diameters of the tip end of the bump electrode 14 and the table electrode 13 is desirably 65 to 85%. The core 15 may be made of an insulating resin which forms an elastic body after curing, such as silicone rubber and butadiene rubber, or a semiconductor protective film material, such as polyimide and polybenzoxazole (PBO), and if the core 15 is a protective film material, it can be formed simultaneously with the pre-processing of a semiconductor. For example, the Young's modulus of the silicone rubber used was 160 to 370 MPa.
In
In
In
In
The substrate 1 is formed of a glass epoxy substrate, a silicon substrate, a silicon interposer, or the like.
By pressing the semiconductor chip 3 formed with table electrodes 13 and the bump electrodes 14 in this way at the mounting position of the substrate 1 in the same step shown in
Even if warping occurs as shown in
Furthermore, in the mounted state shown in
(Second Reference Mode)
The core 15 of the table electrode 13 in the first reference mode is flat disk-shaped, but a core 15 of a table electrode 13 according to the second reference mode shown in
(Third Reference Mode)
It is desirable in terms of the electrical connection that gold (Au) should be used as the material of the bump electrode 14 and the conductive electrode 16 of the table electrode 13 according to each of the reference modes, but metallization with Cu—Ni—Au, Cr—Au, Ti—Pd—Au, or the like, is also possible.
Here, a case is described in which copper (Cu) which is not suitable for crimping connection due to oxidation is used for the bump electrode 14 and the conductive electrode 16 of the table electrode 13. In this case, solder 21 is applied previously onto a wire electrode 2 of a substrate 1, as shown in
In this way, even if copper (Cu) which is not suitable for crimping connection due to oxidation is used for the bump electrode 14 and the conductive electrode 16 of the table electrode 13, it is possible to obtain an electrical connection of high reliability by metallic bonding of the gap between the wire electrode 2 and the bump electrode 14 with solder.
The core 15 of the table electrode 13 in the first reference mode is a flat disk-shaped, and the core 15 of the table electrode 13 in the second reference mode is in a ring shape, but as shown in
By providing the plurality of cores 15 having a smaller Young's modulus than the bump electrode 14 in a distributed fashion separated from one another on the electrode pad 6 formed on the surface of the semiconductor chip, it is possible to distribute the stress due to the cores 15 being more liable to deform, compared to a case where cores 15 are formed without being separated from one another, and furthermore, the stress between the adjacent cores due to a difference in thermal expansion between the cores 15 and the conductive electrode 16 can be reduced, and damage to elements below the electrode pad 6 can be reduced.
Similarly to
In this way, furthermore, the nearer the position of the electrode 12 to the corner portion 27 which is subject to the effects of stress, the greater the total surface area of the plurality of cores 15 within the table electrode 13, and therefore improvement in the action of alleviating stress can be anticipated.
In the reference modes shown in
The cores 15 of the table electrodes 13 according to the respective embodiments described above are made of an elastic material consisting of an insulating resin, but it is also possible to form the cores 15 of a conductive adhesive which includes a conductive resin and conductive filler. By making the cores 15 conductive, it is possible to improve the reliability of the electrical connection.
In the respective embodiments described above, the semiconductor chip 3 and the substrate 1 are fixed together with the thermosetting resin 5, but it is also possible to use a thermoplastic resin instead of the thermosetting resin, or to make combined use of an ultraviolet curable resin. More specifically, it is possible to use an epoxy resin, a polyallyl ether resin, a polyamide resin, a polyester resin, a polyimide resin, or the like, as a suitable resin material.
The present invention achieves good conduction in flip-chip mounting at fine pitch, and is able to contribute to increasing functional integration of semiconductor devices of various types.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2007-126173 | May 2007 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP2008/001166 | 5/9/2008 | WO | 00 | 9/17/2009 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2008/142839 | 11/27/2008 | WO | A |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
56-56656 | May 1981 | JP |
01-233741 | Sep 1989 | JP |
03-062927 | Mar 1991 | JP |
10-303249 | Nov 1998 | JP |
2000-174050 | Jun 2000 | JP |
2000-299338 | Oct 2000 | JP |
2005-503014 | Jan 2005 | JP |
2006-019497 | Jan 2006 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20100032832 A1 | Feb 2010 | US |