3D companies address critical areas

It’s only Tuesday, and already, it’s been a productive week for 3D news.

Yesterday, SUSS and 3M announced an agreement in which SUSS becomes an authorized equipment supplier for 3M’s temporary bond and debond process. As such, SUSS’s 300mm wafer bonders will be configured to support 3M’s process and materials. This ties in to SUSS’s 3D strategy, which according to Wilfried Bair, general manager, Wafer Bonder Division, SUSS MicroTec, is to provide “a flexible, modular platform” configurable to customer needs. He recently explained to me that how you debond depends on the materials you bond with. Carrier wafer processes have been used in manufacturing high power devices for years, but the requirements around 3D are different, when you consider that instead of 200mm wafers, you’re potentially dealing with 300mm wafers thinned to 50µm. The fewer the steps, and lower the temperature, the better. So the advantages to the 3M process is that there’s only one carrier wafer step involved, it’s fast, clean, and can be done at room temperature.

Today, Alchimer SA, made a three-fold announcement, leading off with the news that it received its 3rd round of funding in the amount of $10M to expand customer-support programs and pursue new IP development. This is a significant achievement given the current economic climate. Additionally, the company formally welcomed Kathy Cook aboard as business development manager, who brings a solid background from previous positions at SUSS MicroTec, Applied Materials, Millipore, and ULVAC Technologies. (Incidentally Kathy, don’t let them call you “veteran” again in a press release. It makes you sound MUCH older than you are.) Alchimer also announced an agreement with Nagase Ltd., a Tokyo-based marketing firm, to help them meet the demand of the Japanese market.This news, coupled with last week’s announcement that the company had achieved an 80% reduction in cost-of-ownership for its egViaCoat processes indicates that this company is really on to something with this low-cost wet deposition alternative for TSV copper seed.

Lastly, DEK international stepped into the 3D arena, combining efforts with CHAD to incorporate DEK’s thin wafer system with CHAD’s wafer handler, thereby addressing traditional challenges associated with high-speed handling and processing of thinned wafers for emerging 3D packaging, wafer coating and ball placement processes. The companies plan to demonstrate their capabilities during SEMICON West. I look forward to learning more about this at the show.

Individually, these announcements have nothing to do with one another, but collectively, they can be used to illustrate how the industry is addressing some of the remaining critical areas of 3D integration with TSV interconnects. Insulator barrier/ seed, and wafer bonding; — particularly temporary bonding and debonding — and thin wafer handling have been pointed out as areas still needing cost-effective solutions. Looks like we’re making progress. – F.v.T.

Notes from the Exhibition Hall

I have to admit that this year at IMAPS Device Packaging Conference, I spent more time attending technical sessions and less time with the exhibitors than I usually do at an industry event. However, I did manage to check in with a few of them to see what their latest contributions are to the 3D IC and 3D Packaging realm.

Palomar Technologies
I wasn’t surprised to run into Bradley Benton at the Palomar booth – I pretty much expect to see him at these events. In fact, he gave me my first comprehensive lesson in the history of wire bond technologies. I was, however, surprised to learn that the company, which is firmly established in the wire bond business, is venturing into the TSV space with its 6500 Eutectic Die Attach System. Benton says the tool is designed to perform die to wafer processes, and achieves 1.5 µm placement accuracies.

“We recognize that TSV is coming,” he noted. “We have some TSV capabilities now. We’re looking into ways of enhancing that.” Benton says his interest in 3D packaging is why he got into this business 26 years ago. “I always assumed microelectronics would build up and not out.” He said. “What’s new is that we’re finally going at it and doing it with silicon.

SUSS MicroTec
I caught up with Kathy Cook of SUSS MicroTec at the tail end of the poster sessions on Thursday, where she was presenting a poster based on Margarete Zoberbier’s recent presentation at SEMICON Korea about some of SUSS’ equipment technologies for TSVs. Cook explained that polymers adhesives may be necessary for permanent bonding when copper alone isn’t enough to hold the wafers together. The take-away message was the company’s achievement of submicron post bond alignment accuracy (.35µm) for permanent bonding and several other new capabilities involving SUSS’s latest 300mm tools – ACS300 Gen 2 Coater and the MA300 mask aligner. The 300mm permanent bonder is the XBC300. SUSS has recently achieved some excellent results in the area of thin wafer handling as well.

Tango Systems
Martijn Pierik, of Impress PR, introduced me to the folks at Tango Systems, who were showcasing the company’s flagship PVD system, the Axcela. Ravi Mullapudi, president and CEO, explained how the tool was suited to perform barrier and seed layer processes for TSV, which have been identified as areas still to be addressed from a cost of ownership perspective. He said this dry, vacuum process uses rotating targets in the chamber to perform both steps in one process. The tool can accommodate 150, 200 and 300mm wafers, with quick changover.

Surface Technology Systems
In between catching up on non-industry related news, my good friend Michelle Bourke of STS, clued me in on the companies continued work with improved control of TSV profiles. STS has made lots of progress in maintaining the delicate balance between high etch rates and excellent across-wafer etch depth uniformity. One exciting bit of news she shared with me was the company’s recent R& D success with high speed deep reactive ion etch (DRIE) at 106µm/min. While the process needs to be refined, the point is, they’ve achieved it. So expect to see more on this as the process is tweaked. – F.v.T