Method for structure reconfiguration and repair of fine line open defects

Abstract

A method for structure reconstruction and repair of open circuit defects of fine lines, comprising the following steps: step A: placing the line to be repaired on an AOI detection platform, identifying and marking the defect area by AOI; step B: placing the line to be repaired on a laser platform and importing the defect data marked by AOI into the laser platform; step C: performing surface morphology reconstruction processing on the marked open circuit defect area; step D: placing the raw material required for repair into the area to be repaired; step E: performing sintering treatment on the repair area to form a conductive path in the open circuit area; and step F: removing residual particles outside the defect area and restoring the line shape. According to the above, the present application proposes a method for structure reconstruction and repair of open circuit defects of fine lines, which solves the defects of the existing fine line open circuit repair technology, such as insufficient positioning accuracy, poor interface bonding, low reliability and poor process adaptability, and cannot meet the repair requirements of high precision and high reliability of microelectronic devices.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of integrated circuit repair technology, and in particular to a method for structural reconstruction and repair of fine circuit open-circuit defects. Background Technology

[0002] With the rapid development of microelectronics technology towards miniaturization and high-density integration, fine circuit lines in fields such as electronic packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, and biochips have generally reached submicron to nanometer levels in width. During circuit fabrication, packaging, and long-term service, fine circuits are highly susceptible to open-circuit defects due to factors such as mechanical stress, thermal shock, chemical corrosion, or process deviations, which seriously affect the electrical performance and operational reliability of the devices.

[0003] Currently, repair technologies for open-circuit defects in fine circuits mainly include laser cladding, conductive slurry filling, and direct deposition. However, existing technologies still have many shortcomings in practical applications: First, traditional repairs often rely on manual defect location, resulting in low positioning accuracy and poor repeatability, making it difficult to meet the high-precision repair requirements of submicron-level circuits; Second, the original open-circuit fracture surface is often an irregular serrated or cliff-like micromorphology, resulting in a small actual contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, low interfacial bonding strength, and a tendency for interfacial peeling and detachment failures; Third, stress concentration is prone to occur at the fracture surface, and under conditions such as temperature cycling, the repaired area is prone to cracking due to differences in thermal expansion coefficients, leading to poor long-term stability; Fourth, when filling the nanoscale gaps with conductive materials, problems such as material collapse and bridging short circuits can easily occur, resulting in low repair yield and difficulty in simultaneously meeting conductivity and reliability requirements.

[0004] In summary, existing fine circuit open circuit repair technologies suffer from defects such as insufficient positioning accuracy, poor interface bonding, low reliability, and poor process adaptability, and cannot meet the current high-precision and high-reliability repair requirements of microelectronic devices. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to propose a method for structural reconstruction and repair of open circuit defects in fine circuits, which solves the problems of insufficient positioning accuracy, poor interface bonding, low reliability and poor process adaptability in the existing fine circuit open circuit repair technology, and cannot meet the current repair requirements of high precision and high reliability of microelectronic devices.

[0006] To achieve this objective, the present invention adopts the following technical solution: A method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits includes the following steps: Step A: Place the circuit to be repaired on the AOI inspection platform, where the AOI will identify and mark the defective area; Step B: Place the circuit to be repaired on the laser platform and import the defect data marked by AOI into the laser platform; Step C: Reconstruct the surface morphology of the marked open circuit defect areas; Step D: Place the materials required for repair into the area to be repaired; Step E: Sinter the repair area to create a conductive path in the broken area; Step F: Remove residual particles outside the defective area to restore the circuit shape.

[0007] Furthermore, in step C, the marked open circuit defect area is reconstructed using laser ablation or micromachining.

[0008] Specifically, in step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process uses microgrooves as its structural form.

[0009] Preferably, in step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process uses a circular hole as its structural form.

[0010] In some embodiments, the depth of the microgroove and the circular hole ranges from 0.1 to 20 μm.

[0011] Furthermore, in step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process is performed on a stepped slope.

[0012] Specifically, in step C, the structural form of the surface morphology reconstruction process is a slope.

[0013] Preferably, the angle of the slope is in the range of 5-90°.

[0014] In some embodiments, in step D, the raw material required for repair is metal nanoparticles or tiny metal bonding wires, and the metal material is aluminum, copper, silver, gold, nickel, tin or iron.

[0015] Furthermore, the sintering process is performed by pressure sintering, hot pressing sintering, or ultra-high pressure sintering.

[0016] Compared with the prior art, one of the above technical solutions has the following beneficial effects: 1. AOI is used to automatically identify and mark open circuit defects, and then the data is imported into the laser platform to achieve rapid and accurate positioning of defect locations, effectively avoiding manual positioning errors and improving repair efficiency and consistency; 2. By reconstructing the surface morphology of the broken area, the microstructure of the defect is reconstructed, increasing the effective contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, improving the interface bonding state, reducing the risk of interface peeling, and improving the mechanical stability and thermal cycling reliability of the repaired circuit. Furthermore, the sintering process forms a dense and continuous conductive path between the repair material and the original circuit, effectively reducing contact resistance and ensuring stable conductivity of the circuit. At the same time, residual particles are removed, ensuring neat circuit edges and avoiding bridging, short circuits, or leakage problems. The overall process is suitable for fine circuit scenarios with small line widths and narrow gaps, and can effectively overcome the defects of traditional repair methods such as poor interface contact, stress concentration, and material collapse. It is suitable for high-precision microelectronic circuit repair needs in electronic packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, and biochips. Attached Figure Description

[0017] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the surface morphology reconstruction structure according to one embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the repair process according to one embodiment of the present invention; Among them: 1. Substrate surface; 2. Original intact circuit; 3. Circuit area to be processed; 4. Laser; 5. Processed intact circuit area; 6. Metal paste; 7. Repaired area. Detailed Implementation

[0018] Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below. Examples of these embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements or elements having the same or similar functions throughout. The embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and are only used to explain the present invention, and should not be construed as limiting the present invention.

[0019] In the description of this invention, it should be understood that the terms "center," "longitudinal," "lateral," "length," "width," "thickness," "upper," "lower," "left," "right," "front," "rear," "vertical," "horizontal," "top," "bottom," "inner," "outer," "inner side," "outer side," "inner end," "outer end," "axial," "radial," and "circumferential," etc., indicating orientation or positional relationships based on the orientation or positional relationships shown in the accompanying drawings, are only for the convenience of describing this invention and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, or be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as a limitation of this invention. Furthermore, features defined with "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of these features, used to distinguish descriptive features, without any order or emphasis. In the description of this invention, unless otherwise stated, "a plurality of" means two or more.

[0020] In one embodiment of the present invention, such as Figure 1-2As shown, a method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits includes the following steps: Step A: Place the circuit to be repaired on an AOI inspection platform, where the AOI identifies and marks the defect area; Step B: Place the circuit to be repaired on a laser platform and import the defect data marked by the AOI into the laser platform; Step C: Perform surface morphology reconstruction processing on the marked open-circuit defect area; Step D: Place the raw materials required for repair into the area to be repaired; Step E: Perform sintering treatment on the repair area to form a conductive path in the open-circuit area; Step F: Remove residual particles outside the defect area to restore the circuit shape.In this embodiment, the method is applicable to the repair of fine circuits with linewidths ≤500μm, ranging from submicron to nanometer scale. Application scenarios include defective circuit repair in circuit boards, electronic packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, and biochips. During operation, the circuit to be repaired is placed on an AOI (Automated Optical Inspection) platform with the circuit surface facing the AOI camera. AOI optical inspection automatically identifies and marks the coordinates of open-circuit defects, establishing digital location information for the defects. Subsequently, the circuit to be repaired is transferred to a laser platform, and the defect data is imported. The laser platform can interface with the AOI platform to directly read and analyze the defect locations. Data is used to accurately locate the defect area. Then, surface treatment is applied to the broken area to reconstruct the original irregular fracture morphology, forming a regular microstructure and achieving the goal of surface morphology reconstruction. This increases the actual contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, improving the interface bonding strength and circuit reliability after repair. It also provides an effective stress interface for the subsequent sintering process. Furthermore, it improves the density of the filler; without treatment, a cup-mouth structure exceeding 90 degrees might exist, leading to incomplete filling. Afterward, metallic repair materials are filled into the treated defect area, and the repair material is melted or solidified through a sintering process. The process involves densification, forming a metallurgical or mechanical bond with the original circuit to construct a continuous and stable conductive path. Finally, residual particles outside the repair area are removed, restoring the original geometry of the circuit, thus completing the structural reconstruction and reliable repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits. This invention uses AOI to automatically identify and mark open-circuit defects, then imports the data into a laser platform to achieve rapid and accurate positioning of the defect, effectively avoiding human positioning errors and improving repair efficiency and consistency. Furthermore, by reconstructing the surface morphology of the broken area, the microstructure of the defect is reconstructed, increasing the effective contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, and improving... The interface bonding state reduces the risk of interface peeling, improves the mechanical stability and thermal cycling reliability of the repaired circuit, and the sintering process forms a dense and continuous conductive path between the repair material and the original circuit, effectively reducing contact resistance and ensuring stable conductivity of the circuit. At the same time, residual particles are removed, ensuring neat circuit edges and avoiding bridging, short circuits or leakage problems. The overall process is suitable for fine circuit scenarios with small line widths and narrow gaps, and can effectively overcome the defects of traditional repair methods such as poor interface contact, stress concentration and material collapse. It is suitable for high-precision microelectronic circuit repair needs such as electronic packaging, semiconductor manufacturing and biochips.

[0021] In step C, the marked open circuit defect area is reconstructed using laser ablation or micromachining. In this embodiment, the high-energy focusing characteristics of lasers are utilized to precisely target the open circuit defect area. The photothermal effect rapidly removes irregular protrusions, burrs, and oxide layers from the fracture surface, while simultaneously creating regular microstructures at the edge of the original circuit, providing a clean and regular interface for subsequent filling and repair materials. Laser ablation can achieve micron- to submicron-level precision processing, meeting the requirements of fine circuit repair, avoiding damage to intact circuit areas, effectively removing impurities and oxide layers from the fracture surface, obtaining a high-cleanliness interface, improving the interface bonding strength between the repair material and the original circuit, and minimizing the heat-affected zone of laser processing, avoiding thermal damage and stress distortion to the circuit substrate, ensuring the electrical performance and long-term reliability of the repaired circuit. This embodiment utilizes micromachining technology to mechanically or chemically cut and etch the open circuit defect area, transforming the original cliff-like or jagged irregular fracture surface into a smooth and regular micromorphology. It controllably removes the defect layer at the fracture edge, forming a regular bonding interface, increasing the effective contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, and providing a stable stress interface for subsequent sintering. The micromachining process allows for precise control of the fracture micromorphology, ensuring consistent interface conditions for each repair, improving the repeatability and yield of the repair process, eliminating the unevenness of the original fracture surface, significantly increasing the effective contact area, enhancing the mechanical anchoring ability of the repair layer, reducing the risk of detachment, and offering mature technology, strong equipment versatility, adaptability to different circuit materials, high processing efficiency, and effectively reducing the cost of repairing fine circuits.

[0022] In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process uses a microgroove structure. In this embodiment, during operation, a submicron-level open circuit defect in a semiconductor manufacturing process is selected. The circuit is first placed on an AOI inspection platform with the circuit surface facing the camera. The AOI accurately marks the open circuit area and exports the data. The data is then imported into a laser platform, where laser ablation is used to create a microgroove surface treatment on the open circuit area. The microgroove depth is approximately 5 μm and the width is approximately 3 μm to increase the contact area with the repair material. Next, silver nanoparticles are placed into the microgroove, and hot-pressing sintering at 180°C and 4 MPa melts and bonds the silver particles to form a pathway. Finally, residual particles outside the defect are removed. The shear strength of the circuit interface after inspection and repair is significantly improved compared with the existing technology. In this embodiment, microgrooves are processed in the fault area to form a regular groove structure from the original irregular fracture. The repair material can be embedded in the groove, forming a contact surface in both the horizontal and vertical directions. During sintering, the pressure can be effectively transmitted to the side wall of the original circuit, realizing the mechanical interlocking and metallurgical bonding between the repair material and the circuit. The microgroove structure increases the contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, improves the interface bonding strength, forms a mechanical locking structure, effectively prevents the repair layer from falling off, disperses sintering stress, reduces the risk of interface peeling, and improves thermal cycling stability.

[0023] In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process uses a circular hole as its structural form. In this embodiment, a circular hole is machined in the open circuit defect area, allowing the repair material to fill the hole and bond tightly to the hole wall, forming a rivet-like interlocking structure. During sintering, the material densifies within the hole, wrapping around the original circuit from all sides to achieve omnidirectional bonding. The circular hole structure increases the contact area omnidirectionally, resulting in higher bonding strength, forming a three-dimensional anchoring structure with strong resistance to detachment, improving stress distribution, avoiding local stress concentration, and significantly improving repair reliability.

[0024] The depth range of the microgrooves and the circular holes is 0.1-20 μm. In this embodiment, setting the depth range of the microgrooves and the circular holes to 0.1-20 μm ensures both structural reconstruction effectiveness and processing feasibility, as well as circuit strength and conductivity. Specifically, within this range, sufficient micro-interlocking structures can be formed, effectively increasing the contact area between the repair material and the original circuit, providing a reliable mechanical interlocking and metallurgical bonding foundation, and avoiding insufficient bonding and repair layer detachment due to insufficient depth. Furthermore, it avoids excessive processing that could lead to excessive removal of the original circuit substrate and weakening of the cross-section, preventing a decrease in the mechanical strength of the circuit and an increased risk of breakage, while also avoiding damage to the substrate and ensuring the overall structural stability of the circuit. This depth range matches the width and thickness of submicron to nanometer-level fine circuits, allowing for precise control of microstructure dimensions and preventing material filling collapse and bridging short circuits caused by excessive depth. This ensures neat edges and stable electrical properties of the repaired circuit. The depth range is suitable for the processing precision of laser ablation and micromachining processes, facilitating batch and stable preparation, improving the repeatability and yield of the repair process, and meeting the needs of high-precision microelectronic circuit repair.

[0025] In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction treatment uses a stepped slope structure. In this embodiment, for open-circuit defects caused by thermal shock in electronic packaging, the short-circuit area is first marked by AOI, then imported into a laser platform and treated with a stepped slope. The step length is 1 micrometer and the step height is 0.5 micrometers. A regular slope is constructed on the side of the intact circuit to disperse the sintering pressure. Subsequently, tiny copper metal bonding wires are laid along the slope, and ultra-high pressure sintering at room temperature and 80 MPa is used to tightly bond the bonding wires to the circuit. Finally, residual particles are cleaned. Tests show that the horizontal bonding force between the sintered block and the circuit is significantly improved due to pressure decomposition, and the conductivity is reduced. The failure rate is kept below 5%, effectively avoiding the risk of capillary collapse and meeting the repair accuracy and reliability requirements of submicron-level fine circuits. In this embodiment, a stepped slope is processed in the open circuit defect area to form a multi-level stepped contact surface. The repair material can be laid out layer by layer to fit the steps. During sintering, the pressure is dispersed by the multi-level interface, and a horizontal and vertical two-way bond is formed to enhance the interface stability. The multi-level contact of the stepped slope structure greatly increases the effective bonding area, disperses the sintering pressure, avoids local stress concentration, enhances mechanical interlocking, and significantly reduces the failure risk under thermal cycling.

[0026] In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process uses a ramp structure. In this embodiment, a ramp is fabricated in the broken circuit defect area to transform the vertical fracture into an inclined surface. During sintering, the vertical pressure is decomposed into horizontal and vertical components. The horizontal component pushes the repair material to adhere tightly to the original circuit sidewall, enhancing the horizontal bonding force. The ramp structure utilizes the principle of force decomposition to enhance the horizontal bonding force, eliminate cliff-like stress concentration, improve thermal stability, increase the contact area, improve the interface bonding state, and reduce the probability of peeling failure.

[0027] The angle range of the slope is 5-90°. In this embodiment, setting the angle range of the slope to 5-90° optimizes the interface stress state and significantly improves the repair reliability while ensuring processing feasibility. Specifically, the sintering pressure can be effectively decomposed into horizontal and vertical components. The horizontal component pushes the repair material to adhere tightly to the stepped sidewall, forming a multi-level mechanical interlock, significantly improving the interface bonding strength. It also avoids the formation of a vertical cliff-like interface, eliminates shear stress concentration caused by thermal expansion differences, and reduces the risk of cracking and detachment during thermal cycling. This angle range is suitable for submicron-level fine circuit dimensions, ensuring the mechanical anchoring effect of the stepped structure while avoiding processing difficulties due to excessively small angles or damage to the circuit substrate due to excessively large angles. This ensures the mechanical stability and conductivity of the repaired circuit. The angle range matches the processing capabilities of laser ablation and micromachining processes, making it easy to achieve precise and controllable morphology, ensuring the consistency of the repair interface, and improving process repeatability and batch repair yield.

[0028] In step D, the raw materials required for repair are metal nanoparticles or micro-metal bonding wires, and the metal material is aluminum, copper, silver, gold, nickel, or iron. In this embodiment, metal nanoparticles or micro-metal bonding wires are selected as the repair raw materials, and metal materials such as aluminum, copper, silver, gold, nickel, tin, or iron are used. This approach balances conductivity, processing adaptability, bonding reliability, and cost control. Specifically, aluminum, copper, silver, gold, nickel, tin, and iron are all highly conductive metals that can form a low-resistance continuous path in the broken circuit area, ensuring the stability of the electrical performance of the repaired circuit and meeting the signal transmission requirements of microelectronic devices. The aforementioned metal materials have good ductility and sintering activity, and after sintering, they can bond with the original wire. The path forms a metallurgical bond or a tight mechanical bond, with strong interfacial adhesion, making it less prone to detachment and improving repair reliability. Furthermore, the small particle size and good flowability of the metal nanoparticles can fully fill submicron-level micro gaps, avoiding insufficient filling or material collapse. The micro metal bonding wires have good ductility and are suitable for narrow gap laying, effectively reducing the risk of bridging short circuits. The metal nanoparticles and micro metal bonding wires are suitable for pressure sintering processes such as laser sintering and hot pressing sintering, resulting in high density after sintering, further improving the mechanical stability and thermal cycling resistance of the repaired area.

[0029] The sintering process can be pressure sintering, hot-press sintering, or ultra-high pressure sintering. In this embodiment, pressure sintering, hot-press sintering, or ultra-high pressure sintering is used as the curing method for the repair area, which can significantly improve the repair quality and reliability. With the assistance of pressure, the repair material is tightly bonded to the original circuit, promoting atomic diffusion and metallurgical bonding, greatly improving interface adhesion, reducing the risk of detachment failure, and promoting the densification of metal particles, reducing internal porosity, forming a continuous, low-resistance conductive path, and ensuring the stability of the circuit's electrical performance. Pressure sintering has strong applicability; hot-press sintering takes into account both temperature and pressure, and has high densification efficiency; ultra-high pressure sintering can achieve high-strength bonding at room temperature, avoiding thermal damage, and is suitable for the repair needs of fine circuits with different materials and precision. The sintering process has good controllability, the repair area has a uniform structure and reasonable stress distribution, and effectively improves thermal cycling stability and long-term service reliability.

[0030] In the description of this specification, the references to terms such as "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "illustrative embodiment," "example," "specific example," or "some examples," etc., indicate that a specific feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, the illustrative expressions of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the specific features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments or examples.

[0031] Although embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, those skilled in the art will understand that various changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations can be made to these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: Step A: Place the circuit to be repaired on the AOI inspection platform, where the AOI will identify and mark the defective area; Step B: Place the circuit to be repaired on the laser platform and import the defect data marked by AOI into the laser platform; Step C: Reconstruct the surface morphology of the marked open circuit defect areas; Step D: Place the materials required for repair into the area to be repaired; Step E: Sinter the repair area to create a conductive path in the broken area; Step F: Remove residual particles outside the defective area and restore the circuit shape.

2. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step C, the marked open circuit defect area is reconstructed using laser ablation or micromachining.

3. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process is performed using microgrooves.

4. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process is performed using a circular hole.

5. A method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that: The depth range of the microgroove and the circular hole is 0.1-20 μm.

6. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step C, the surface morphology reconstruction process is performed on a stepped slope.

7. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step C, the structural form of the surface morphology reconstruction process is a slope.

8. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 7, characterized in that: The angle range of the slope is 5-90°.

9. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step D, the raw materials required for repair are metal nanoparticles or tiny metal bonding wires, and the metal material is aluminum, copper, silver, gold, nickel, tin or iron.

10. The method for structural reconstruction and repair of open-circuit defects in fine circuits according to claim 1, characterized in that: The sintering process is performed by pressure sintering, hot pressing sintering, or ultra-high pressure sintering.

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