With a focus on providing cost-effective and reliable solutions to speed manufacturing
readiness of 3D technology options, experts from SEMATECH's
3D Interconnect Program based at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering's
(CNSE) Albany NanoTech Complex outlined new developments in wafer bonding, copper
removal, and wafer thinning at the 2010 Materials Research Society (MRS) Spring
Meeting on April 5-9 in San Francisco, CA.
3D integration offers the promise of higher performance, higher density, higher
functionality, smaller form factor, and potential cost reduction. In this emerging
field, new and improved technologies and integration schemes will be necessary
to realize 3D's potential as a manufacturable and affordable path to sustaining
semiconductor productivity growth. At MRS, SEMATECH researchers described several
practical 3D integration achievements—applicable across various 3D processes—in
areas such as high-aspect ratio TSVs, wafer bonding, and thinning of interconnect
test structures.
"Through collaborative research, our goal is to develop and characterize
new approaches to implementing 3D," said Sitaram Arkalgud, director of
SEMATECH's 3D Interconnect Program. "These practical approaches
are critical to the integration, process development, metrology, and tool sets
that will make 3D TSVs commercially viable."
"The SEMATECH-CNSE partnership continues to drive leading-edge technologies
that will accelerate 3D processes for manufacturing," said Richard Brilla,
CNSE vice president for strategy, alliances and consortia. "This innovative
research will enable critical advances to benefit our corporate partners and
the global nanoelectronics industry."
In partnership with the UAlbany NanoCollege, specific SEMATECH process advances
aimed at improving 3D performance include:
- A practical approach to copper overburden removal by chemical mechanical
polishing (CMP), using high removal rate slurry screening and achieving good
planarization results, with low polish defects, at a rate suitable for emerging
3D TSV copper applications.
- The process development and associated metrology necessary in thinning
bonded 300 mm TSV and non-TSV bonded wafers, leaving a defect-free surface
which meets the requirements for subsequent processing.
- An array of metrology techniques used in characterizing a manufacturable
wafer bond process to deliver a void and dendrite-free bond for handle wafers.
SEMATECH's 3D program was established at CNSE's Albany NanoTech
Complex to deliver robust 300 mm equipment and process technology solutions
for high-volume through-silicon via (TSV) manufacturing. To accelerate progress,
the program's engineers have been working jointly with chipmakers, equipment
and materials suppliers, and assembly and packaging service companies from around
the world on early development challenges, including cost modeling, technology
option narrowing, and technology development and benchmarking.