Through-Electrode Chip Structure for Stacked Package Power and Heat Flow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Semiconductor chips and packages face challenges in achieving high-volume data processing with reduced size and thickness, requiring efficient electrical connections and heat dissipation while maintaining process stability and operational efficiency.
Innovation Solution
The design includes semiconductor chips with through electrodes, insulating layers, and connection electrodes, where the distance between through electrodes is greater than twice the thickness of the insulating layer, and a metal-containing thin film layer with an undercut, allowing for stable electrical connections and efficient power supply, and a semiconductor package with stacked chips connected via these electrodes for enhanced operation characteristics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple semiconductor chips are stacked vertically to increase data processing volume, then productivity is improved, but device complexity increases due to the need for multiple through electrodes and connection electrodes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple electrical connection functions into a single rear connection electrode that simultaneously connects to multiple through electrodes. This reduces the total number of separate connection structures needed, simplifying the overall device complexity while enabling vertical stacking of multiple semiconductor chips for increased data processing volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The rear connection electrode serves multiple functions: it electrically connects multiple through electrodes, provides mechanical support, and enables thermal management. This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional specialized structures, thereby improving productivity through vertical stacking without proportionally increasing device complexity.
2Reliability
If the distance between through electrodes is increased to greater than twice the thickness of the insulating layer, then reliability is improved through better electrical isolation, but area occupied increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent optimizes the insulating layer thickness and spacing parameters to achieve the minimum required distance (greater than twice the insulating layer thickness) for reliable electrical isolation. By carefully controlling these dimensional parameters, the design achieves adequate isolation without unnecessarily increasing the chip area.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulating layer acts as an intermediary between adjacent through electrodes, providing electrical isolation. By positioning the through electrodes at a distance greater than twice the insulating layer thickness, the patent ensures that the intermediary layer provides sufficient isolation while minimizing the space it occupies on the chip.
3Reliability
If a metal-containing thin film layer with undercut is added to connect through electrodes, then electrical conductivity is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent controls the thickness and composition parameters of the metal-containing thin film layer to achieve the desired undercut profile. By optimizing these parameters, the design achieves reliable electrical connection between through electrodes while keeping the undercut formation within manufacturable precision limits.
Solution Approach 2:
The metal-containing thin film layer forms a composite structure with the insulating layer and through electrodes. This composite approach allows the metal layer to provide excellent electrical conductivity and form the necessary undercut for mechanical interlocking, while the surrounding insulating materials provide structural support and isolation, distributing the manufacturing precision requirements across multiple materials.
4Volume of stationary object
If chip thickness is reduced to achieve smaller package size, then volume is reduced, but heat dissipation becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions heat dissipation from a primarily planar pathway to a vertical pathway by implementing through electrodes that extend through the entire chip thickness. This dimensional change allows heat to be conducted from the front surface through the bulk of the chip to the rear surface, enabling effective thermal management in thin chips and reducing the overall package volume.
Solution Approach 2:
The through electrodes serve as thermal intermediaries, conducting heat from the active front surface of the chip through the substrate to the rear connection electrode and surrounding structures. This intermediary heat conduction pathway enables efficient heat dissipation in thin chips without increasing package volume.
Data Source
AI summary
A semiconductor chip may include: a body portion with a front surface and a rear surface; a pair of through electrodes penetrating the body portion; an insulating layer disposed over the rear surface of the body portion and the pair of through electrodes; and a rear connection electrode disposed over the insulating layer and connected simultaneously with the pair of through electrodes, wherein a distance between the pair of through electrodes is greater than twice a thickness of the insulating layer.