Seal Ring Corner Design for IC Crack Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional seal ring techniques are insufficient in protecting integrated circuit corners during die sawing and packaging, leading to cracking and delamination due to mechanical stresses, especially at interfaces with different thermal expansion properties.
Innovation Solution
A corner structure comprising a plurality of corner band stacks oriented at a predetermined angle, extending from sawing traces, which act as a protective barrier to redirect and contain structural faults, thereby preventing delamination and cracking.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the seal ring is made more robust to protect corners, then corner protection improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Complexity is localized only to the corner band stacks where additional metal layers and via structures are needed. The majority of the seal ring maintains its simple, conventional structure, minimizing the increase in overall device complexity while providing enhanced protection exactly where required.
2Strength
If corner protection is enhanced with additional structures, then mechanical stress resistance improves, but manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The enhanced manufacturing complexity is confined to the corner band stack regions only. The standard seal ring portions continue to be manufactured using conventional processes, thereby minimizing the overall impact on manufacturing ease while providing superior stress resistance at critical corner locations.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for an integrated circuit device are provided. The integrated circuit device includes a substrate, an active circuit area, and a dielectric layer. A seal ring surrounds the active circuit area. At least one corner area of the integrated circuit includes a plurality of corner band stacks. Each of the plurality of corner band stacks is oriented at about a predetermined angle and extends from a first sawing trace to a second sawing trace. In a specific embodiment, if a structural fault in the at least one corner area occurs, the structural fault is predisposed to extend at about the predetermined angle.