Development of 3D System-in-Package with TSV Technology

Abstract

In recent years, products such as smart phones, tablets, and wearable devices, are becoming miniaturized and high performance. 3D-type semiconductor structures are advancing as the demand for high-density assembly increases. We studied a fabrication process using a SoC die and a memory die for 3D-SiP (System in Package) with TSV technology. Our fabrication is comprised of two processes. One is called MEOL (Middle End of Line) for exposing and completing the TSV's in the SoC die, and the other is assembling the SoC and memory dice in a 3D stack. The TSV completion in MEOL was achieved by SoC wafer back-side processing. Because its final thickness will be a thin 50μm (typical), the SoC wafer (300 mm diameter) is temporarily attached face-down onto a carrier-wafer. Careful back-side grinding reveals the “blind vias” and fully opens them into TSV's. A passivation layer is then grown on the back of the wafer. With planarization techniques, the via metal is accessed and TSV pads are built by electro-less plating without photolithography. After the carrier-wafer is de-bonded, the thin wafer is sawed into dice. For assembling the 3D die stack, flip-chip technology by thermo-compression bonding was the method chosen. First, the SoC die with copper pillar bumps is assembled to the conventional organic substrate. Next the micro-bumps on the memory die are bonded to the TSV pads of the SoC die. Finally, the finished assembly is encapsulated and solder balls (BGA) are attached. The 3D-SiP has passed both package-level reliability and board-level reliability testing. These results show we achieved fabricating a 3D-SiP with high interconnect reliability.