Semiconductor Wafer Protrusions Evacuate Trapped Moisture

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Solution Overview

Problem

The challenge in semiconductor device manufacturing is the trapping of air particles or moisture between wafers during bonding, leading to poor coplanarity, reliability issues, and potential cracking, which complicates the miniaturization process and increases yield loss.

Innovation Solution

Incorporating protrusions or recesses on the surface of the carrier wafer to evacuate air or moisture during bonding, ensuring better surface coplanarity and reliability by minimizing trapped gases and preventing cracks.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If wafer bonding is performed without protrusions or recesses, then the bonding process is simple, but air particles or moisture are trapped between wafers causing poor coplanarity and reliability issues

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvebonding reliabilityVSAvoidwafer structure complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The wafer surface is segmented into protrusions and recesses instead of being flat. This segmentation creates evacuation channels that allow trapped air and moisture to escape during bonding, improving reliability without requiring complex external equipment

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The protrusions and recesses act as intermediary structures that facilitate the evacuation of air and moisture during bonding. These features serve as a mediator between the bonding surfaces, enabling reliable bonding by removing harmful trapped substances

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Productivity

If wafer bonding is performed without protrusions or recesses, then the manufacturing process is simple, but moisture trapped between wafers causes cracking and yield loss

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemanufacturing efficiencyVSAvoiddevice reliability

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The protrusions and recesses are pre-formed on the wafer surface before bonding occurs. This preliminary structuring ensures that evacuation pathways are already in place, allowing moisture and air to escape during bonding without requiring additional process steps

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

3Manufacturing precision

If traditional wafer bonding is used, then the process is straightforward, but poor coplanarity of bonded wafers occurs due to trapped air particles

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesurface coplanarityVSAvoidwafer surface structure

Core Design Contradiction:

Manufacturing precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The continuous flat surface is segmented into discrete protrusions and recesses. This segmentation creates multiple localized evacuation zones that prevent air trapping and ensure uniform contact between bonded wafers, achieving better coplanarity

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

Different regions of the wafer surface have different properties - protrusions provide contact points while recesses provide evacuation spaces. This local differentiation of surface quality enables both bonding and air evacuation functions simultaneously

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

Data Source

PatentUS9406499B2Semiconductor wafer structure

Publication Date: 2016.08.02 TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO LTD

AI summary

A semiconductor structure includes a wafer including a first surface and a periphery, a plurality of protrusions protruded from the first surface and a plurality of recesses spaced from each other by the plurality of protrusions, and each of the plurality of recesses is extended from the periphery of the wafer and is elongated across the first surface of the wafer.