The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having an electrostatic breakdown protection element which requires a high electrostatic withstand voltage and a high-frequency characteristic.
In recent years, in the field of semiconductor devices, there has been considered not only a combination of an analog circuit and a digital circuit but also an integration of a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, and the like, which have been constituted as a single element. With the development of high integration and high functionality of the semiconductor devices, techniques for assuring isolation and preventing interference between circuit blocks in a semiconductor device are strongly demanded.
In a conventional semiconductor device, in order to assure the isolation, ground terminals and power supply terminals are isolated from each other in units of circuit blocks. Each ground terminal is connected to a semiconductor substrate in order to prevent a drawback such as latch-up. However, with respect to a circuit such as a low noise amplifier which must be prevented from interference especially from another circuit or a circuit which must be prevented from interference especially to another circuit due to generation of a large-current/high-voltage amplitude, a ground terminal of such a circuit may not be connected even to a semiconductor substrate. In this case, since the ground terminal which is not connected to the semiconductor substrate decreases in electrostatic withstand voltage, an electrostatic breakdown protection element (hereinafter referred to as a “protection element”) must be connected to the ground terminal, like another ordinary input/output terminal (for example, see Patent Document 1). However, when such a protection element is connected to the ground terminal, it is often the case that the isolation cannot be assured, or electric characteristics are deteriorated.
A semiconductor device having a conventional protection element will be described below.
The semiconductor device 101 is a semiconductor package having a package including the semiconductor substrate 102, the first and second internal circuits 103 and 104, the protection element 105, the two substrate contacts 106 and 107 therein, and is generally used while being mounted on a packaging substrate.
The semiconductor device 101 includes, for example, the semiconductor substrate 102 such as a p-type silicon substrate. On the upper side of the semiconductor substrate 102, an n-type semiconductor layer 121 is formed, and on the upper side of the n-type semiconductor layer 121, a laminate portion 122 obtained by alternatively stacking interconnection layers and insulating layers is formed. In the n-type semiconductor layer 121, the two substrate contacts 106 and 107 which are p-type semiconductors and the first and second diodes 111 and 112 consisting of a p-type semiconductor and an n-type semiconductor are formed.
In case of a WLCSP, the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109 and the power supply terminal 110 are constituted by solder balls, respectively. The constituent elements of the semiconductor device 101 are connected to form the circuit shown in
When the semiconductor device 101 is mounted on the packaging substrate 120 as shown in
Generally, when used in a packaging state, since the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109 are grounded on the ground plane, electrostatic surge is not applied from the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109. However, in a manufacturing process or a shipping/delivery process, since these ground terminals are not grounded, it must be considered that an electrostatic surge is also applied to the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109. The following describes a case in which the electrostatic surge is applied to the ground terminals 108 and 109 when the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109 are not grounded. When the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109 are not grounded, in application of an electrostatic surge to the first ground terminal 108, the electrostatic surge escapes to the semiconductor substrate 102 and are bypassed, and therefore, the electrostatic surge is not applied to the first internal circuit 103. On the other hand, in the case where the electrostatic surge is applied to the second ground terminal 109, there is no router for bypassing the electrostatic surge because the second ground terminal 109 is not connected to the semiconductor substrate 102, and the electrostatic surge may be applied to the second internal circuit 104. In this case, the protection element 105 protects the second internal circuit 104 from the electrostatic surge.
An operation of the protection element 105 is as follows. When a negative electrostatic surge having a voltage lower than the voltage of the first ground terminal 108 is applied to the second ground terminal 109, the diode 111 is turned on to bypass a surge current from the second ground terminal 109 to the first ground terminal 108, so that the second internal circuit 104 is protected. When a positive electrostatic surge having a voltage higher than that of the power supply terminal 110 is applied to the second ground terminal 109, the diode 112 is turned on to bypass a surge current from the second ground terminal 109 to the power supply terminal 110, so that the second internal circuit 104 is protected.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Unexamined Laid-open Publication No. 2000-307061
However, since the first and second diodes 111 and 112 in the protection element 105 have parasitic capacitance components, isolation between the first internal circuit 103 and the second internal circuit 104 may not be sufficiently assured. For example, when a noise is generated in the first internal circuit 103, the noise transmits to the semiconductor substrate 102 and may transmit to the second internal circuit 104 through the parasitic capacitance component of the diode 111. The noise of the first internal circuit 103 transmits from the power supply terminal 110 to the second ground terminal 109 through the parasitic capacitance component of the second diode 112 and may transmit to the second internal circuit 104. In other words, there has been a problem that the isolation can not be assured due to the parasitic capacitance components of the first and second diodes 111 and 112, even with such a countermeasure that the first and second ground terminals 108 and 109 are isolated from each other to disconnect the second ground terminal 109 from the semiconductor substrate 102 in order to assure the isolation between the first internal circuit 103 and the second internal circuit 104. Another problem has been noted that the substrate contact 107 is often connected near the first diode 111, as shown in
Moreover, not only the parasitic capacitance components of the first and second diodes 111 and 112 in the circuit in
When there are many circuits provided on the semiconductor substrate 102 other than the first and second internal circuits 103 and 104, and when these circuits are logic circuits or circuits which outputs large signals, various types of noise are frequently present in the semiconductor substrate 102. In order to assure isolation from the semiconductor substrate 102 including noises from the various circuits is very important for the second internal circuit 102 to prevent interference of noises or the like.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor device having an electrostatic breakdown protection element, which makes it possible for a circuit disposed on a semiconductor substrate to obtain a high electrostatic withstand voltage while assuring sufficient isolation from a semiconductor substrate and other circuits disposed thereon.
A semiconductor device having an electrostatic breakdown protection element according to the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate on which an integrated circuit is formed, a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal each electrically connecting the integrated circuit to an external ground electrode, and an electrostatic breakdown protection element electrically connecting the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal. The first ground terminal is electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate, and the second ground terminal is not electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate. This semiconductor device is referred to as the first semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, the integrated circuit comprises a first circuit which is connected to the first ground terminal and a second circuit which is connected to the second ground terminal. This semiconductor device is referred to as the second semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, the second circuit is a low noise amplifier circuit and the first circuit is a control circuit for controlling a current flowing in the low noise amplifier circuit. This semiconductor device is referred to as the third semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, any one of the first to third semiconductor device further comprises a laminate portion constructed by alternatively stacking at least one interconnection layer and at least one insulating layer formed above the semiconductor substrate. The electrostatic breakdown protection element is provided in the interconnection layer farthest apart from the semiconductor substrate. This semiconductor device is referred to as the fourth semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, any one of the first to third device further comprises a laminate portion constructed by alternatively stacking at least one interconnection layer and at least one insulating layer formed above the semiconductor substrate, and a package including the semiconductor substrate and the laminate portion inside thereof. The package is a ball grid array package or a wafer level chip size package, and at least one of the interconnection layers is a re-interconnection layer. The electrostatic breakdown protection element is provided in the re-interconnection layer. This semiconductor device is referred to as the fifth semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, in any one of the first to fifth semiconductor device, the electrostatic breakdown protection element is an aluminum interconnection. This semiconductor device is referred to as the sixth semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, in any one of the first to fifth semiconductor device, the electrostatic breakdown protection element is a copper interconnection. This semiconductor device is referred to as the seventh semiconductor device, hereinafter.
Preferably, in any one of the first to seventh semiconductor device, the length between the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal of the electrostatic breakdown protection element is equal to or larger than 2 mm.
The semiconductor device having an electrostatic breakdown protection element according to the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate on which an integrated circuit is formed, a first ground terminal and a second ground terminal each electrically connecting the integrated circuit and an external ground electrode, and an electrostatic breakdown protection element electrically connecting the first ground terminal and the second ground terminal, where the first ground terminal is electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate while the second ground terminal is not electrically connected to the semiconductor substrate, and thus, it is possible to obtain a circuit having a high electrostatic withstand voltage while sufficiently assuring isolation from other circuits on the same semiconductor substrate or from the semiconductor substrate.
1: Semiconductor device, 2: Semiconductor substrate, 3: First internal circuit, 4: Second internal circuit, 5: Electrostatic breakdown protection element, 6: Substrate contact, 7: First ground terminal, 8: Second ground terminal, 9: Power supply terminal
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The semiconductor device 1 is a semiconductor package having a package including the semiconductor substrate 2, the first internal circuit 3, the second internal circuit 4, the protection element 5, and the substrate contact 6 therein. The semiconductor package is generally mounted on a packaging substrate to be used. In recent years, the semiconductor package is required to be reduced in size so as to be used in a notebook personal computer, a mobile telephone, and the like, and a main stream thereof is, for example, a semiconductor package having a chip size package (CSP) having a chip size equal to or slightly larger than the chip size of a Ball Grid Array (to be referred to as a BGA hereinafter) or a WLCSP.
The semiconductor device 1 includes, for example, the semiconductor substrate 2 such as a p-type silicon substrate. An n-type semiconductor layer 21 is formed on the upper side of the semiconductor substrate 2, and a laminate portion 22 obtained by alternatively stacking interconnection layers and insulating layers is formed on the upper side of the n-type semiconductor layer 21. The substrate contact 6 consisting of a p-type semiconductor is formed in the n-type semiconductor layer 21.
In the plurality of interconnection layers of the laminate portion 22, aluminum (Al) interconnections 23 to 25 and 27 to 29 and a copper (Cu) interconnection 26 constituting the protection element 5 are formed. The Al interconnections 23 to 25 and the Al interconnections 27 to 29 are sequentially stacked from the semiconductor substrate 2 side, and the Al interconnection 23 and the Al interconnection 27, the Al interconnection 24 and the Al interconnection 28, and the Al interconnection 25 and the Al interconnection 29 are formed in the same interconnection layer, respectively. The Al interconnections 23 to 25 are connected to the first internal circuit 3, and the Al interconnections 27 to 29 are connected to the second internal circuit 4. The Cu interconnection 26 is connected to both the first internal circuit 3 and the second internal circuit 4. The interconnections 23 to 26 are electrically connected to each other through a through hole 30, and the interconnections 26 to 29 are electrically connected to each other through a through hole 31. As shown in
In the WLCSP, the first and second ground terminals 7 and 8 and the power supply terminal 9 (not shown) are constituted of solder balls, respectively. The first ground terminal 7 and the second ground terminal 8 are connected to the Cu interconnection 26 through corresponding via holes 32 and 33, respectively. The substrate contact 6 serving as a p-type semiconductor is connected to the p-type semiconductor substrate 2 and also connected to the interconnection 23 through a via hole 34. In
As shown in
As described above, the electrodes 35 and 36 on the mounting surface 40 are connected to the interconnection 39 arranged on the second interconnection layer 41 through the corresponding via holes 37 and 38, respectively. On the upper surface of the package of the semiconductor device 1, there may be arranged not only solder balls functioning as the first and second ground terminals 7 and 8 and the power supply terminal 9 but also other solder balls functioning as connection terminals such as a ground terminal and a power supply terminal. In this case, electrodes to which these solder balls are connected may be arranged on the mounting surface 40 of the packaging substrate 20 and the third to fifth interconnection layers 42 to 44, and furthermore, via holes may be formed in the packaging substrate 20 to connect the solder balls to the interconnections in the packaging substrate 20.
The total number of interconnections of the laminate portion 22 is not limited to the number shown in
A case in which, an electrostatic surge is applied to the first and second ground terminals 7 and 8 in the semiconductor device 1 described above when the first and second ground terminals 7 and 8 are not grounded, will be described below. When the electrostatic surge is applied to the first ground terminal 7, the electrostatic surge is bypassed to the semiconductor substrate 2 through the substrate contact 6, and therefore, the electrostatic surge is not applied to the first internal circuit 3. On the other hand, when the electrostatic surge is applied to the second ground terminal 8, the electrostatic surge is bypassed to the semiconductor substrate 2 through the first ground terminal 7, and therefore, the electrostatic surge is not applied to the second internal circuit 4. More specifically, the second internal circuit 4 is protected by the protection element 5. In the semiconductor device according to the embodiment of the present invention, the electrostatic breakdown protection element is constituted by the interconnection for connecting the first ground terminal 7 and the second ground terminal 8, and therefore, an electrostatic surge applied to the second ground terminal 8 which is not connected to the semiconductor substrate 2 can be bypassed to the first ground terminal 7, so that a high electrostatic withstand voltage can be realized. In the semiconductor device according to the embodiment, a diode is not used as an electrostatic breakdown protection element unlike in a conventional semiconductor device, and therefore, an electrostatic withstand voltage higher than that of the conventional semiconductor element can be achieved.
When the semiconductor device 1 is mounted on the packaging substrate 20 as shown in
An influence to the second internal circuit 4 when a noise is generated by the first internal circuit 3 will be described below.
When the package of the semiconductor device 1 is a BGA package, a WLCSP, or the like, each of the values L52 to L55 is approximately 0.5 nH. When the first internal circuit 3 is, for example, a relatively large circuit including a bias circuit, an example of a relationship between a noise frequency and an output impedance of the first internal circuit 3 when viewed from the point A is shown in
The second internal circuit 4 is, for example, a circuit such as a low noise amplifier. At this time, an input impedance of the second internal circuit 4 when viewed from the point B is equal to an impedance of an emitter-grounded amplifier when viewed from an emitter side.
As is apparent from the circuit shown in
When the degree of integration is increased and in the case where a logic circuit or a circuit which generates a large voltage amplitude are arranged on the same semiconductor substrate, a noise or an interference potential propagated through the semiconductor substrate is frequently posed as a problem, and therefore, it is important that a circuit such as a low noise amplifier the characteristics of which are influenced by even small noise is isolated from the semiconductor substrate as much as possible. In the semiconductor device according to the present invention, the second ground terminal 8 connected to the second internal circuit 4 is not connected to the semiconductor substrate 2, and the second ground terminal 8 is connected to the first ground terminal 7 through the protection element 5, and for this reason, the second internal circuit 4 can assure sufficient isolation from the first internal circuit 3 or the semiconductor substrate 2 while realizing a high electrostatic withstand voltage. The second internal circuit 4 can sufficiently assure isolation from the first internal circuit 3 or the semiconductor substrate 2 by the parasitic inductance component of the protection element 5. Therefore, even though the second internal circuit 4 is a low noise amplifier circuit, the second internal circuit 4 can be prevented from being erroneously operated by a noise from another circuit on the same semiconductor substrate or from the semiconductor substrate. The electrostatic breakdown protection element in the semiconductor device according to the present invention has the above advantage to a noise having a frequency of 10 MHz or more.
The semiconductor device according to the present invention uses the electrostatic breakdown protection element 5 to make it possible to reduce parasitic inductance components of the second internal circuit 4 to the ground plane 51. When the protection element 5 is absent, the values of the parasitic inductance components of the second internal circuit 4 to the ground plane 51 are expressed by L53+L55. However, when the protection element 5 is present, the value is given by L53+L55(L56+L54)/(L55+L56+L54). As described above, L52 to L55 are set at 0.5 nH, L56 is set at 2 nH, and when the parasitic inductance components of the second internal circuit 4 to the ground plane 51 are provisionally calculated, the value is 1 nH when the protection element 4 is absent, and the value is 0.92 nH when the protection element 5 is present, so that the parasitic inductance component can be reduced by about 10%. A plurality of other ground terminals such as the second ground terminal 8 which is not connected to the semiconductor substrate 2 are present, and the ground terminals thereof are connected to the first ground terminal 7 through the protection element described above, and in this case, an effect of reducing the parasitic inductance components of the second internal circuit 4 to the ground plane 51 further increases. The reduction of the parasitic inductance components of the second internal circuit 4 to the ground plane 51 by the protection element 5 can advantageously improve the high-frequency characteristics of the second internal circuit 4. When the high-frequency characteristics of the second internal circuit 4 are improved, the high-frequency characteristics of the entire integrated circuits of the semiconductor device are improved.
As described above, as the protection element 5, the interconnection of the uppermost layer physically distanced from the first internal circuit 3 as much as possible is preferably used, and preferably has a length of about 2 mm, and preferably has a parasitic inductance (L) component. The material of the protection element 5 is arbitrarily determined, and may be a wire interconnection, and is preferably an Al interconnection or a Cu interconnection. In
In the above description, the semiconductor device 1 has one ground terminal (hereinafter referred to as a “substrate connecting terminal”) which is connected to the semiconductor substrate 2 and one ground terminal (hereinafter referred to as a “substrate unconnecting terminal”) which is not connected to the semiconductor substrate 2. However, the semiconductor device 1 may have a plurality of substrate connecting terminals and a plurality of substrate unconnecting terminals. The number of substrate connecting terminals held by the semiconductor device 1 may be equal to or different from the number of substrate unconnecting terminals held by the semiconductor device 1.
As shown in
When isolation between the first internal circuit 3 and the third internal circuit 61 is not posed as a problem, another protection element may be connected between the second ground terminal 8 and the second power supply terminal 63.
Even in the circuit shown in
Furthermore, even though a plurality of substrate unconnecting terminals are present, the substrate unconnecting terminals are connected to at least one substrate connecting terminal by the protection element described above, so that a circuit connected to the substrate unconnecting terminals can assure sufficient isolation from the first internal circuit 3 and the semiconductor substrate 2 while realizing a high electrostatic withstand voltage.
The present invention has been described with respect to the specific embodiments. However, many other modifications and corrections and other usage are apparent to a person skilled in the art. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the specific disclosure described above, and can be limited by only the accompanying scope of claims.
An electrostatic breakdown protection element according to the present invention can be used in a semiconductor device or the like which requires a high electrostatic withstand voltage and high-frequency characteristics. In addition, a semiconductor device having the electrostatic breakdown protection element according to the present invention can be applied to a notebook personal computer, a mobile telephone, and the like.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2003-397099 | Nov 2003 | JP | national |
This Application is a U.S. National Phase Application of PCT International Application PCT/JP2004/017701.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP04/17701 | 11/29/2004 | WO | 5/25/2006 |