Semiconductor Substrate Corner Protection for Grinding Crack Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
In the process of grinding semiconductor chips, the corners of adjacent chips often collide, leading to cracks due to the flexibility of the die attach film, which connects and allows movement between the chips.
Innovation Solution
A semiconductor substrate design featuring protection patterns arranged around the corners of the chips at the intersection of scribe lanes to prevent collisions during the grinding process, with these patterns having a width of about 3/60 to 4/60 times the width of the scribe lane and being formed from materials like photosensitive polyimide.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the die attach film is made flexible to allow movement between chips during grinding, then the chips can be processed independently, but the corners of adjacent chips collide and generate cracks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by forming protection patterns around chip corners before the grinding process. These patterns are created in advance to prevent the harmful collision that would occur during subsequent processing, directly addressing the technical contradiction by preparing protective structures beforehand.
Solution Approach 2:
The protection patterns function as beforehand cushioning by providing a protective layer around chip corners before grinding occurs. This cushioning effect prevents the direct collision between adjacent chip corners that would otherwise cause cracks, while still allowing the flexible die attach film to enable chip movement.
2Reliability
If protection patterns are added around chip corners, then corner collisions are prevented during grinding, but the device structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by adding protection patterns only at specific locations (chip corners) rather than throughout the entire chip structure. This localized approach provides necessary protection against corner collisions while minimizing the overall increase in device complexity and maintaining simplicity in other areas of the chip design.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor substrate may include a plurality of semiconductor chips and a protection pattern. The semiconductor chips may be divided by two scribe lanes intersecting each other. Corners of the semiconductor chips may be disposed at the intersection of the two scribe lanes. The protection pattern may be arranged at the intersection of the scribe lanes to surround the corners of the semiconductor chips. Thus, the corners of the semiconductor chips may be protected by the protection pattern form colliding with each other in a following grinding process.