• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.466-472
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• 2007

A technology platform for wafer-level three-dimensional integration circuits (3D-ICs) is presented, and that uses wafer bonding with low-k polymeric adhesives and Cu damascene inter-wafer interconnects. In this work, one of such technical platforms is explained and characterized using a test vehicle of inter-wafer 3D via-chain structures. Electrical and mechanical characterizations of the structure are performed using continuously connected 3D via-chains. Evaluation results of the wafer bonding, which is a necessary process for stacking the wafers and uses low-k dielectrics as polymeric adhesive, are also presented through the wafer bonding between a glass wafer and a silicon wafer. After wafer bonding, three evaluations are conducted; (1) the fraction of bonded area is measured through the optical inspection, (2) the qualitative bond strength test to inspect the separation of the bonded wafers is taken by a razor blade, and (3) the quantitative bond strength is measured by a four point bending. To date, benzocyclobutene (BCB), $Flare^{TM}$, methylsilsesquioxane (MSSQ) and parylene-N were considered as bonding adhesives. Of the candidates, BCB and $Flare^{TM}$ were determined as adhesives after screening tests. By comparing BCB and $Flare^{TM}$, it was deduced that BCB is better as a baseline adhesive. It was because although wafer pairs bonded using $Flare^{TM}$ has a higher bond strength than those using BCB, wafer pairs bonded using BCB is still higher than that at the interface between Cu and porous low-k interlevel dielectrics (ILD), indicating almost 100% of bonded area routinely.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.29-33
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• 2012

The demand for 3D wafer level integration has been increasing significantly. Although many technical challenges of wafer stacking are still remaining, wafer stacking is a key technology for 3D integration due to a high volume manufacturing, smaller package size, low cost, and no need for known good die. Among several new process techniques Cu-to-Cu wafer bonding is the key process to be optimized for the high density and high performance IC manufacturing. In this study two main challenges for Cu-to-Cu wafer bonding were evaluated: misalignment and bond quality of bonded wafers. It is demonstrated that the misalignment in a bonded wafer was mainly due to a physical movement of spacer removal step and the bond quality was significantly dependent on Cu bump dishing and oxide erosion by Cu CMP.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.672-675
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• 2005

To imprint 70-nm wide line-patterns, we used a newly developed ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) process in which an elementwise patterned stamp (EPS), a large-area stamp, and pressurized air are used to imprint a wafer in a single step. For a single-step UV-NIL of a 4' wafer, we fabricated two identical $5'\times5'\times0.09'(W{\times}L{\times}H)$ quartz EPSs, except that one is with nanopatterns and the other without nanopatterns. Both of them consist of 16 small-area stamps, called elements, each of which is $10\;mm\;\times\;10\;mm$. UV-curable low-viscosity resin droplets were dispensed directly on each element of the EPSs. The volume and viscosity of each droplet are 3.7 nl and 7 cps. Droplets were dispensed in such a way that no air entrapment between elements and wafer occurs. When the droplets were fully pressed between ESP and wafer, some incompletely filled elements were observed because of the topology mismatch between EPS and wafer. To complete those incomplete fillings, pressurized air of 2 bar was applied to the bottom of the wafer for 2 min. Experimental results have shown that nanopatterns of the EPS were successfully transferred to the resin layer on the wafer.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.196-203
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• 2004

A three-dimensional (3D) IC technology platform is presented for high-performance, low-cost heterogeneous integration of silicon ICs. The platform uses dielectric adhesive bonding of fully-processed wafer-to-wafer aligned ICs, followed by a three-step thinning process and copper damascene patterning to form inter-wafer interconnects. Daisy-chain inter-wafer via test structures and compatibility of the process steps with 130 nm CMOS sal devices and circuits indicate the viability of the process flow. Such 3D integration with through-die vias enables high functionality in intelligent wireless terminals, as vertical integration of processor, large memory, image sensors and RF/microwave transceivers can be achieved with silicon-based ICs (Si CMOS and/or SiGe BiCMOS). Two examples of such capability are highlighted: memory-intensive Si CMOS digital processors with large L2 caches and SiGe BiCMOS pipelined A/D converters. A comparison of wafer-level 3D integration 'lith system-on-a-chip (SoC) and system-in-a-package (SiP) implementations is presented.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.2217-2220
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• 2007

In this paper, we propose a new wafer level package (WLP) for the RF MEMS applications. The Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR) are fabricated and hermetically packaged in a new wafer level packaging process. With the use of Au-Sn eutectic bonding method, we bonded glass cap and FBAR device wafer which has groove-shaped via formed in the backside. The device wafer includes a electrical bonding pad and groove-shaped via for connecting to the external bonding pad on the device wafer backside and a peripheral pad placed around the perimeter of the device for bonding the glass wafer and device wafer. The glass cap prevents the device from being exposed and ensures excellent mechanical and environmental protection. The frequency characteristics show that the change of bandwidth and frequency shift before and after bonding is less than 0.5 MHz. Two packaged devices, Tx and Rx filters, are attached to a printed circuit board, wire bonded, and encapsulated in plastic to form the duplexer. We have designed and built a low-cost, high performance, duplexer based on the FBARs and presented the results of performance and reliability test.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.16.1-16.1
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• 2007

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.5-8
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• 2009

In this paper, a high-quality low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) solenoid inductor using a solder ball and an air cavity on a silicon wafer for three-dimensional (3-D) system-in-package (SiP) is proposed. The LTCC multi-layer solenoid inductor is attached using Ag paste and solder ball on a silicon wafer with the air cavity structure. The air cavity is formed on a silicon wafer through an anisotropic wet-etching technology and is able to isolate the LTCC dielectric loss which is equivalent to a low k material effect. The electrical coupling between the metal layer and the LTCC dielectric layer is decreased by adopting the air cavity. The LTCC solenoid inductor using the solder ball and the air cavity on silicon wafer has an improved Q factor and self-resonant frequency (SRF) by reducing the LTCC dielectric resistance and parasitic capacitance. Also, 3-D device stacking technologies provide an effective path to the miniaturization of electronic systems.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.5 no.1 s.14
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• pp.5-11
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• 2006

One of the most important is to insure that a new circuit design is qualified far release before it is scheduled for manufacturing, test, assembly and delivery. Due to various causes, there happens to be a low yield in the wafer process. Wafer test is a critical process in analyzing the chip characteristics in the EDS(electric die sorting) using analytic tools -wafer map, wafer summary and datalog. In this paper, we propose new analytic map algorithms for DDI chip test data. Using the proposed analytic map algorithms, we expect to improve the yield, quality and analysis time.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.137-140
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• 2014

With the recent advent of through silicon via (TSV) technology, wafer level-TSV interconnection become feasible in high volume manufacturing. To increase the manufacturing productivity, it is required to develop equipment for backside passivation layer deposition for TSV wafer bonding process with high deposition rate and low film stress. In this research, we investigated the relationship between process parameters and the induced wafer stress of PECVD silicon nitride film on 300 mm wafers employing statistical and artificial intelligence modeling. We found that the film stress increases with increased RF power, but the pressure has inversely proportional to the stress. It is also observed that no significant stress change is observed when the gas flow rate is low.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.341-346
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• 2006

We have fabricated SOI CMOS active pixel image sensor with the pinned photodiode on handle wafer in order to reduce dark currents and improve spectral response. The structure of the active pixel image sensor is 4 transistors APS which consists of a reset and source follower transistor on seed wafer, and is comprised of the photodiode, transfer gate, and floating diffusion on handle wafer. The source of dark current caused by the interface traps located on the surface of a photodiode is able to be eliminated, as we apply the pinned photodiode. The source of dark currents between shallow trench isolation and the depletion region of a photodiode can be also eliminated by the planner process of the hybrid bulk/SOI structure. The photodiode could be optimized for better spectral response because the process of a photodiode on handle wafer is independent of that of transistors on seed wafer. The dark current was about 6 pA at 3.3 V of floating diffusion voltage in the case of transfer gate TX = 0 V and TX=3.3 V, respectively. The spectral response of the pinned photodiode was observed flat in the wavelength range from green to red.