Design and Direct Assembly of 2.5D/3D Rigid Silicon Interposer on PCB

Abstract

Silicon interposer is emerging as a vehicle for integrating dies with sub 50um bump pitch in 2.5D/3D configuration. Benefits of 2.5D/3D integration are well explained in the literature, however, cost and reliability is a major concern especially with the increase in interposer size. Among the challenges, reliability issues such as warpage, cracks and thermal-stresses must be managed, in addition, multi-layer build-up flip chip substrate cost and its impact on the overall yield must be considered. Because of these challenges, 2.5D/3D silicon interposer has developed a reputation as a costly process. To overcome the reliability challenges and cost associated with typical thin interposer manufacturing and assembly, a rigid silicon interposer type structure is disclosed. In this study, interposer with thickness of greater than 300um is referred to as rigid interposer. Rigid silicon interposer is directly assembled on PCB without the need for intermediary substrate. This eliminates the need for an intermediary substrate, thin wafer handling, wafer bonding/debonding procedures and Through Silicon Via (TSV) reveal processes, thus, substantially reducing the cost of 2.5D/3D integrated products while improving reliability. A 10X10mm2 rigid silicon interposer test vehicle with 310um thickness was designed and fabricated. BGA side of the interposer with 1mm ball pitch was bumped with eutectic solder balls through a reflow process. Interposer was then assembled on a 50X50mm2 FR-4 PCB. We present design and direct assembly of the rigid silicon interposer on PCB followed by temperature cycle results using CSAM images at 250, 500, 750 and 1000 cycles. It is shown that all samples successfully passed the temperature cycle stress test.