Embodiments described herein relate generally to a semiconductor device.
In a semiconductor device including a die pad as a mounting portion of a semiconductor chip, in which the semiconductor chip and the die pad are covered with a package material, it is important to discharge a Joule heat generated by a current flowing into the semiconductor chip efficiently to the outside of the semiconductor device.
As an approach for achieving a good heat radiation property, the die pad made of metal, serving as a heat radiating plate as well as a mounting portion, may be enlarged in a horizontal direction, to reduce the thermal resistance of the die pad. This approach, however, is disadvantageous in that it enlarges the size of the semiconductor device in the horizontal direction, making the die pad less compact.
As another approach for achieving a good heat radiation property, the die pad made of metal may be thickened to reduce the thermal resistance of the die pad. This approach, however, is not practical because micro fabrication of a thick metal plate is difficult.
In some embodiments according to one aspect, a semiconductor device includes a first die pad, an adhesive, and a second die pad fixed to the top surface of the first die pad via the adhesive. The second die pad includes a body portion and a protrusion portion provided on a side surface of the body portion. A semiconductor chip is fixed to a top surface of the second die pad, and a lead is electrically connected to the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor device further includes a package material that covers the first die pad, the second die pad, the semiconductor chip, and the lead. The first die pad is substantially as thick as the lead.
In some embodiments according to another aspect, a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes providing a lead frame including a first die pad and a plurality of leads. The method further includes affixing a second die pad on a top surface of the first die pad, the second die pad including a body portion and a protrusion portion extending from a side surface of the body portion. The method further includes affixing a semiconductor chip to a top surface of the second die pad, electrically connecting the semiconductor chip and the leads, and covering the lead frame, the second die pad, and the semiconductor chip with a package material.
Other aspects and embodiments of the disclosure are also encompassed. The foregoing summary and the following detailed description are not meant to restrict the disclosure to any particular embodiment but are merely meant to describe some embodiments of the disclosure.
In general, according to some embodiments, the devices and methods described herein may provide a semiconductor device with a good heat radiation property.
Some embodiments of a semiconductor device can include a first die pad having a top surface, and a second die pad fixed to the top surface of the first die pad via an adhesive. The second die pad can include a body portion having at least one side surface, and a protrusion portion provided on the at least one side surface of the body portion. A semiconductor chip can be fixed to a top surface of the second die pad, and a lead can be electrically connected to the semiconductor chip. The semiconductor device can further include a package material that covers at least a portion of the first die pad, at least a portion of the second die pad, at least a portion of the semiconductor chip, and at least a portion of the lead. The first die pad can be substantially as thick as the lead.
Hereinafter, the semiconductor device according to various embodiments will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in
The semiconductor chip 11 may be a semiconductor device capable of handling a large electric power, such as a gallium nitride-field effect transistor (“GaN-FET”) device that can amplify the power of a high frequency signal.
The semiconductor chip 11 is mounted on a die pad portion 13. The die pad portion 13 can serve as the mounting portion of the semiconductor chip 11 and simultaneously can serve as a heat radiating plate for dissipating Joule heat generated in the semiconductor chip 11.
The die pad portion 13 includes a first die pad 131 and a second die pad 132 fixed on the top surface of the first die pad 131.
The first die pad 131 is a rectangular plate formed of, for example, a metal material having superior thermal conductivity. The metal may include copper (Cu), or may include a copper alloy, or may include another appropriate metal or alloy. The first die pad 131 can be processed together with a plurality of leads 14, as described below. In the depicted embodiment, a thickness of the first die pad 131 is substantially the same as, or equal to, a thickness of the leads 14, namely the first die pad 131 has substantially the same thickness as the leads 14. The thickness may be a thickness consistent with micro fabrication of the first die pad 131 and leads 14 (for example, the thickness may be about 0.2 millimeters (“mm”)). In the description of some embodiments, when referring to two values or characteristics as being substantially the same or equal, the terms can refer to a first value or characteristic being precisely the same or equal to a second value or characteristic, as well as cases where the first value or characteristic is within a range of variation of less than or equal to ±5% of the second value or characteristic, such as less than or equal to ±4%, less than or equal to ±3%, less than or equal to ±2%, or less than or equal to ±1%.
As shown in
The second die pad 132 is fixed on the top surface of the first die pad 131. The second die pad 132 can be made of a metal material having a superior thermal conductivity such as Cu or another appropriate metal or alloy, similarly to the first die pad 131. The first die pad 131 and the second die pad 132 can be made of a same metal material, or can be made of different metal materials.
As shown in
In the depicted embodiment, a thickness of at least one of the protrusion portions 132b can be substantially equal to a thickness of the body portion 132a, namely the protrusion portions 132b are substantially as thick as the body portion 132a. In some embodiments, the thickness of each of the protrusion portions 132b is substantially equal to the thickness of the body portion 132a. In such embodiments, there is substantially no step between the bottom surface of the body portion 132a and the bottom surface of each of the protrusion portions 132b and the both are arranged within the same plane.
Referring back to
The second die pad 132 configured as above is fixed to the top surface of the first die pad 131, for example, via an adhesive 15. The adhesive 15 can be made of, for example, a silver (Ag) paste or another conductive paste.
In the depicted embodiment, the second die pad 132 includes the plurality of protrusion portions 132b. The protrusion portions 132b can suppress the adhesive 15 from rising or creeping up the second die pad 132. As a result, more of a surface of the second die pad 132 may be exposed, in that it is not covered by the adhesive 15, and an adhesive property between the second die pad 132 and the package material 12 can be improved, hence improving the reliability of the semiconductor device 10. The above reason will be described below.
Consider a case where a second die pad formed exclusively of a body portion having the rectangular plate shape is fixed to the top surface of a first die pad with an adhesive. When there is an air layer between the second die pad and the first die pad, the thermal resistance between the second die pad and the first die pad rises. Therefore, a sufficient amount of adhesive is generally used in order to prevent formation of an air layer between the second die pad and the first die pad.
However, when such amount of adhesive is used, the adhesive may rise along the side surface of the second die pad and further up to the top surface of the second die pad. The adhesive further expands also in the curing process of curing the adhesive. Thus, a part of the side surface and the top surface of the second die pad is covered with the adhesive.
Here, as the adhesive, an Ag paste having a high thermal conductivity can be used and, as the package material, an epoxy resin generally containing a silica filler can be used; however, the adhesive property between these two materials may be poor.
In the case of using these general materials, when a part of the side surface and the top surface of the second die pad is covered by the adhesive, the second die pad is not well adhered to the package material. Rather, the package material is in contact with the adhesive which does not adhere well to the same package material. As a result, exfoliation occurs at the interface between the adhesive and the package material, which can reduce the reliability of the semiconductor device.
On the contrary, for the semiconductor device 10 according to the embodiment depicted in
When the plurality of protrusion portions 132b are provided on each of the side surfaces of the body portion 132a, the adhesive 15 is further impeded from rising along the side surface of the body portion 132a between the adjacent protrusion portions 132b. Therefore, in some embodiments, it is desirable that each of the side surfaces of the body portion 132a is provided with the plurality of protrusion portions 132b.
In some embodiments, the second die pad 132 is thicker than at least the first die pad 131. By making the second die pad 132 thicker, the adhesive 15 can be suppressed from rising along the side surfaces to the top surface of the second die pad 132. Further, the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 132 can increase the volume of the whole die pad portion 13, thereby reducing an overall thermal resistance of the die pad portion 13.
In the embodiment depicted in
The semiconductor device 10 according to the first embodiment depicted in
As shown in
The first leads 141 can be external input terminals for supplying signals and power to the semiconductor chip 11, or can be external output terminals for outputting signals supplied by the semiconductor chip 11 to the outside of the semiconductor device 10, or both.
The second leads 142 can be ground terminals for grounding the first die pad 131.
As shown in
The leads 14 are arranged around the first die pad 131 so as to surround the first die pad 131, as shown in
In the semiconductor device 10 according to the first embodiment, the first die pad 131, the second die pad 132, the semiconductor chip 11, the leads 14, and the wires 18 are covered with the package material 12. The package material 12 covers the above-mentioned components but leaves a bottom surface of the first die pad 131 and bottom surfaces of the leads 14 exposed. The package material 12 can be formed of, for example, epoxy resin including a silica filler.
Next, an embodiment of a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device 10 will be described. The second die pad 132 can be manufactured first, and the manufactured second die pad 132 can be used to manufacture the semiconductor device 10. A method of manufacturing the second die pad 132 will be firstly described.
As shown in
Then, as shown in
According to the above, the second die pad 132 as shown in
Next, the method of manufacturing the semiconductor device 10 using the thus configured second die pad 132 will be described.
At first, for example, a metal plate formed of a metal material such as Cu is processed, and, as shown in
As shown in
In this process, more adhesive 15 can be applied in order to suppress an air layer from forming between the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 132. In this embodiment, the second die pad 132 has the protrusion portions 132b, which can suppress the adhesive 15 from rising along the side surfaces of the body portion 132a and further up to the top surface of the second die pad 132.
After forming the respective die pad portions 13, as shown in
As shown in
As shown in
At the end, as shown in
According to the above, the semiconductor device 10 in the first embodiment can be manufactured. These steps need not necessarily be performed in the sequence laid out above, and certain steps may be performed concurrently or in a different order, as appropriate.
According to the above mentioned first embodiment, with the die pad portion 13 formed by the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 132, the semiconductor device 10 having a good heat radiation property can be provided.
Further, according to the first embodiment, with the protrusion portions 132b provided on the side surfaces of the body portion 132a of the second die pad 132, the adhesive 15, which is used to affix the second die pad 132 to the first die pad 131, can be suppressed from covering a part of the side surfaces and the top surface of the second die pad 132. As the result, the adhesion between the second die pad 132 and the package material 12 can be improved and the semiconductor device 10 superior in the reliability can be provided.
The semiconductor device 30 according to the second embodiment is different from the semiconductor device 10 according to the first embodiment in the structure of the second die pad 332 forming the die pad portion 33. Hereinafter, the second die pad 332 in the semiconductor device 30 according to the second embodiment will be described.
As shown in
The second embodiment of the semiconductor device 30 can be similar to the first embodiment of the semiconductor device 10 in some ways, such as in that the second die pad 332 is formed so as to not protrude from the first die pad 131, and the second die pad 332 does not extend beyond the first die pad 131 in a horizontal direction.
The second die pad 332 and the semiconductor device 30 according to the second embodiment can be manufactured in a manner similar to the manufacturing method described above in reference to the first embodiment.
According to the above mentioned second embodiment of the semiconductor device 30, similarly to the first embodiment, with the die pad portion 33 formed by the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 332, the semiconductor device 30 having a good heat radiation property can be provided.
Further, according to the second embodiment, the protrusion portions 332b are provided on the side surfaces of the body portion 332a of the second die pad 332. The protrusion portions 332b can suppress the adhesive 15 creeping up or advancing up along the side surface of the body portion 332a and arriving at the top surface of the second die pad 332. As a result, adhesion between the second die pad 332 and the package material 12 can be improved and the semiconductor device 30 superior in the reliability can be provided.
Further, according to the second embodiment, adhesion between the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 332 through the adhesive 15 can be improved, and the semiconductor device 30 having the improved heat radiation property can be provided. This reason will be described below.
In other cases where the protrusion portion 132b is substantially as thick as the body portion 132a without any step between the bottom surface of the protrusion portions 132b and the bottom surface of the body portion 132a, such as cases involving the second die pad 132 in the semiconductor device 10 according to the first embodiment, the burr 39a formed in the protrusion portion 132b may protrude below the bottom surface of the body portion 132a. Therefore, the burr 39a may be more prone to disturbing an adhesion between the first die pad 131 and the second die pad 132.
While certain embodiments have been described, these embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Indeed, the embodiments described herein may be embodied in a variety of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the embodiments described herein may be made without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. The accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. Moreover, some or all of the above described embodiments can be combined when implemented.
For example, the semiconductor devices 10 and 30 according to the above embodiments are so-called Quad Flat Non-lead package (QFN) typed semiconductor devices, with a plurality of leads 14 exposed from the bottom surface. However, the structure of the die pad portion 13 having been described in the first embodiment and the structure of the die pad portion 33 having been described in the second embodiment may be used for so called Quad Flat Package (QFP) typed semiconductor devices 50 and 70 with a plurality of leads 54 protruding from lateral or side surfaces, as shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2016-037102 | Feb 2016 | JP | national |
The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/252,915, filed Aug. 31, 2016 which claims the benefit of and priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2016-037102, filed Feb. 29, 2016, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20180331019 A1 | Nov 2018 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15252915 | Aug 2016 | US |
Child | 16013151 | US |