Patent Application
20150328707
This U.S. non-provisional patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Korean Patent Application Nos. 10-2014-0059801, filed on May 19, 2014 and 10-2014-0091969, filed on Jul. 21, 2014, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present disclosure herein relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a package, a method of manufacturing the same, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor package using the same, and more particularly, to a solder ball attaching apparatus, a method of manufacturing the same and an apparatus for attaching a solder ball using the same.
A semiconductor device is an essential element in the electronic industry. With the rapid development of the electronic industry, there is a growing need for a highly-integrated, multifunctional and small-size semiconductor device. This is also true in the case of a semiconductor package. For example, since pads formed on a semiconductor substrate such as a printed circuit board (PCB) are highly integrated, the number of the pads is significantly increasing and intervals therebetween are significantly narrowing. In particular, as the number of solder balls increases, the cost of consumables in a solder ball attaching apparatus increases.
The present disclosure provides a solder ball attaching apparatus for attaching solder balls in a highly-integrated semiconductor package at a low cost.
The present disclosure also provides a method of manufacturing the solder ball attaching apparatus.
The present disclosure also provides a method of attaching the solder ball by using the apparatus.
The technical tasks of the present disclosure are not limited to the above-mentioned technical tasks and other technical tasks not mentioned may be clearly understood by a person skilled in the art from the following descriptions.
Embodiments of the inventive concept provide solder ball attaching apparatuses include: a porous plate; and a mask pattern on a surface of the porous plate and having holes which provide spaces storing solder balls temporarily.
In some embodiments, the porous plate may include pores having a size of about 1 μm to about 50 μm.
In other embodiments, the porous plate may include pores having a size of about 10 μm to about 15 μm.
In still other embodiments, the porous plate may include pores having a substantially uniform size.
In even other embodiments, the porous plate may include at least one of zeolite, cement, ceramic, porous plastic, and porous metal.
In yet other embodiments, the mask pattern may be removably coupled to the porous plate.
In further embodiments, a size of each of the holes of the mask pattern may be substantially the same as or larger than a size of each of the solder balls.
In other embodiments of the inventive concept, solder ball attaching apparatuses include: a housing; a porous plate on a bottom surface of the housing; a mask pattern on a bottom surface of the porous plate and having holes which provide spaces for temporarily storing solder balls; and a vacuum unit for providing a vacuum force to the porous plate.
In some embodiments, the porous plate may be removably coupled to the housing and the mask pattern may be removably coupled to the porous plate.
In other embodiments, the porous plate may include pores having a size of about 10 μm to about 15 μm.
In still other embodiments, the housing may include: nozzles in the housing; each of the nozzles having one end opening to the porous plate; and a common line communicating with another end of the nozzles.
In even other embodiments, the vacuum unit may include: a vacuum pump; a vacuum line connecting the vacuum pump to the common line; and a vacuum valve on the vacuum line.
In yet other embodiments, the solder ball attaching apparatuses may further include a control unit connected to the vacuum valve and controlling opening and closing of the vacuum valve.
In further embodiments, the solder ball attaching apparatuses may further include a spray unit providing air or water to the porous plate.
In still further embodiments, the spray unit may include: a fan; a spray line connecting the fan to the common line; and a spray valve on the spray line.
In even further embodiments, the solder ball attaching apparatuses may further include a control unit connected to the spray valve and controlling opening and closing of the spray valve.
In yet further embodiments, the solder ball attaching apparatuses may further include a control unit connected to the spray unit and the vacuum unit to remove the spray unit and the vacuum unit.
In still other embodiments, methods of manufacturing a solder ball attaching apparatus include: coupling an attachable and detachable (removable) porous plate to a bottom surface of a housing connected to a vacuum unit; and coupling an attachable and detachable (removable) mask pattern to a bottom surface of the porous plate.
In some embodiments, the mask pattern may be implemented by forming a plurality of holes in a mask layer by using light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (LASER).
In other embodiments, the mask layer may include stainless steel.
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the inventive concept, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept and, together with the description, serve to explain principles of the inventive concept. In the drawings:
The above objectives, other objectives, characteristics and advantages of the inventive concept will be easily understood through the following embodiments to be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the inventive concept is not limited embodiments to be described below but may be implemented in other forms. On the contrary, exemplary embodiments introduced herein are provided to make disclosed contents thorough and complete and to sufficiently transfer the spirit of the inventive concept to a person skilled in the art.
In the present disclosure, when a component is described as being “on” another component, it means that the component may be formed directly on the other component, or a third component may be arranged in between the components. Also, the thickness of components in the drawings may be exaggerated for clarity.
Embodiments in the present disclosure are described with reference to ideal, exemplary views of the inventive concept that are cross sectional views and/or plan views. The thicknesses of layers and regions in the drawings are exaggerated for the effective description of technical content. Thus, the forms of exemplary views may vary depending on manufacturing technologies and/or tolerances. Thus, embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited to shown specific forms and also include variations in form produced according to manufacturing processes. For example, an etch region shown as a rectangular shape may have a round shape or a shape having a certain curvature. Thus, regions illustrated in the drawings have attributes and the shapes of the regions illustrated in the drawings are intended to illustrate the specific shapes of the regions of elements and not to limit the scope of the inventive concept. Although the terms a first, a second, a third, etc. are used in various embodiments of the present disclosure in order to describe various components, these components are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used in order to distinguish a component from another. Embodiments that are described and illustrated herein also include their complementary embodiments.
The terms used herein are only for explaining embodiments, not limiting the present invention. The terms in a singular form in the disclosure may also include plural forms unless otherwise specified. The term ‘comprises’ and/or ‘comprising’ used in the disclosure does not exclude the existence or addition of other components.
Various embodiments of the inventive concept are described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Solder balls are used in various to form a semiconductor package as external terminals. A solder ball attaching apparatus is typically used to pick up solder balls and to attach the picked-up solder balls to, e.g., a substrate such as a printed circuit board (PCB) or another package, for example, to form a package-on-package (POP) package. Hereinafter, the solder ball attaching device is described in more detail. In particular, while the following embodiments exemplarily describe that solder balls are respectively attached to a plurality of pads on a substrate, the inventive concept is not limited thereto.
Referring to
The housing 100 may include a body 102, a common line 106 connected to the outside (externally) and a plurality of nozzles 104 in communication with the common line 106. For example, the body 102 may have a substantially quadrilateral cross-section. The common line 106 may be connected to an external unit such as a vacuum unit 160. Each of the nozzles 104 may include one end communicating with the common line 106 and another end opening toward the lower part of the body 102.
The porous plate 120 may be disposed adjacent to the bottom surface of the body 102 and be in contact with the nozzles 104.
In one embodiment, the porous plate 120 may include pores having substantially the same size and the pores may be arranged in the porous plate 120 at substantially regular intervals as shown in
In some embodiments, as shown in
The other ends of the nozzles 104 may communicate with the pores 122 of the porous plate 120. The present embodiment may employ the nozzles 104 having various structures. The structure of the nozzles 140 according to one embodiment is described in detail below.
The porous plate 120 and the body 102 may be coupled by a first coupling unit 110. According to an embodiment, the first coupling unit 110 may include a bolt that couples an edge of the porous plate 120 to an edge of the body 102. In some embodiments, the first coupling unit 110 is not limited to the structure shown in the drawings and may have any other suitable structure if the first coupling unit 110 can removably couple the porous plate 120 and the body 102.
The mask pattern 130 may be disposed adjacent to a bottom surface of the porous plate 120. The mask pattern 130 may include stainless steel. The mask pattern 130 may be completed by forming holes 132 (
The semiconductor package may be expanded depending on the thickness of a mounted chip or the type of molding material. In particular, when a substrate on which the pads are formed are expanded, the location of the solder balls SDBs attached to the pads moves depending on the location of the pads on the expanded substrate. Thus, since the mask pattern 130 according to an embodiment has the holes 132 formed on a targeted location, the solder balls SDBs may be accurately located on the pads.
Also, when the arrangement of the pads 310 is changed, it is possible to easily modify the mask pattern 130 to include hole locations that correspond to the locations of the pads. As needed, the mask pattern 130 may be replaced by another mask pattern having another arrangement of holes 132.
The mask pattern 130 and the porous plate 120 may be coupled by a second coupling unit 150. In some embodiments, the second coupling unit 150 may include a bolt that couples an edge of the porous plate 120 to an edge of the mask pattern 130. In some embodiments, the second coupling unit 150 is not limited to the structure shown in the drawings and may have any other suitable structure if the second coupling unit 150 can removably couple the porous plate 120 and the mask pattern 130.
According to some embodiments, the cross section of the mask pattern 130 may have various structures. The cross section of the mask pattern 130 is described below in more detail.
The vacuum unit 160 may include a vacuum pump 162 providing a vacuum force to the housing 100, a vacuum line 164 connecting the housing 100 to the vacuum pump 162, and a vacuum valve 166 disposed on the vacuum line 164. The vacuum line 164 may communicate with the nozzles 104.
The nozzles 104, the pores 122 in the porous plate 120, and the holes 132 of the mask pattern 130 may communicate with one another. Thus, when the vacuum pump 162 operates, a vacuum force is provided to each of the pores 122 in the porous plate 120 and to the holes 132 of the mask patterns 130. And the solder balls SDBs may be respectively adsorbed in the holes 132 by the vacuum force.
After the solder balls SDBs adsorbed in the solder ball attaching apparatus are aligned on the pads of the substrate, it is possible to detach or release the solder balls SDBs from the solder ball attaching apparatus by removing the vacuum force.
In this case, since the plurality of pores 122 may be formed at substantially regular intervals in the porous plate 120, the amount of vacuum force provided respectively to the holes 132 of the mask pattern 130 may be substantially equal to each other. Also, referring to
After the vacuum force is removed, the separation of each of the solder balls SDBs from the solder ball attaching apparatus 10 may also be substantially the same. Also, when the uniform vacuum force transferred to the solder ball SDB is removed, a vertical drop may be easier. Thus, it is possible to substantially prevent the solder ball SDB from being attached to any portion other than a targeted pad.
According to an embodiment of the inventive concepts, the solder ball attaching apparatus 10 may further include a spray unit 170. The spray unit 170 may include a fan 172 providing air or water to the body 102, a spray line 174 connecting the fan 172 to the body 102, and a spray valve 176 disposed on the spray line 174.
The spray line 174 may be coupled to the common line 106. For example, the common line 106 may have two branch lines, which may be the vacuum line 164 and the spray line 174, respectively.
According to an embodiment, it is possible to blow air to each of the solder balls SDBs stored in the hole 132 of the mask patterns 130 by using the spray unit 170. Using the air transferred to each of the solder balls SDBs, it is possible to push the solder ball SDB downwardly.
In another embodiment, it is possible to remove foreign materials remaining in the holes 132 of the mask pattern 130 or on the substrate by using the spray unit 170. When it is required to remove the foreign materials remaining on the substrate, the removal operation may be performed after the separation of the mask pattern 130 from the body 102.
According to an embodiment of the inventive concepts, the solder ball attaching apparatus 10 may further include a control unit 180. The control unit 180 may control the vacuum unit 160 and/or the spray unit 170. In more detail, the control unit 180 may be connected to the vacuum valve 166 and the spray valve 176 to control the vacuum valve 166 and the spray valve 176 and thus adsorb and detach the solder balls SDBs stored in the holes 132 of the mask pattern 130.
Hereinafter, the structure of the nozzles 104 of the solder ball attaching apparatus 10 described in
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
Although the present embodiments describe the structure of the nozzle 104, the nozzle 104 of the inventive concept is not limited thereto.
Hereinafter, the structure of the mask pattern 130 of the solder ball attaching apparatus described in
Referring to
Referring to
Although the present embodiments describe the structure of the mask pattern 130, the structure of the mask pattern 130 of the inventive concept is not limited thereto.
Hereinafter, a method of attaching solder balls on pads of a substrate by using the solder ball attaching apparatus is simply described.
Referring to
By operating the vacuum unit 160 of the solder ball attaching apparatus 10, a vacuum force may be provided to the holes 132 of the mask pattern 130. In more detail, the control unit 180 of the solder ball attaching apparatus 10 may open the vacuum valve 166 and close the spray valve 176 to provide a vacuum force to the vacuum line 164, the common line 106, the nozzle 104, the pores 122 of the porous plate 120, and the holes 132. The solder balls SDBs may be respectively adsorbed to the holes 132 by the vacuum force.
Referring to
Referring to
According to
As shown in
Although not shown in detail, the solder balls SDBs mounted on the pads 310 on which the flux FLX is dotted may be adhered on the pads 310 through a reflow process.
Hereinafter, a cleaning process using the solder ball attaching apparatus is simply described.
In the solder ball attaching apparatus as described in
Also, by closing the vacuum valve 166 and opening the spray valve 176 to provide air or deionized water, foreign materials remaining on the substrate or in equipment may be removed. In this case, the removing operation may be performed after the separation of the mask pattern 130.
According to some embodiments of the inventive concepts, it is possible to reduce the costs of consumables in the solder ball attaching apparatus by using the porous plate 120 and the mask pattern 130. Also, it is possible to accurately place the solder balls SDBs on targeted locations by using the mask pattern 130 having holes formed by using LASER.
While embodiments of the inventive concept are described with reference to the accompanying drawings, a person skilled in the art may understand that the inventive concept may be practiced in other particular forms without changing technical spirits or essential characteristics. Therefore, embodiments described above should be understood as illustrative and not limitative in every aspect.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2014-0059801 | May 2014 | KR | national |
| 10-2014-0091969 | Jul 2014 | KR | national |
