July 13, 2011 – JCN Newswire — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. (MHI) developed a fully automated 8" wafer bonding machine that bonds large-scale integration (LSI) circuits at room temperature, creating 3D ICs. Its fast atom beam (FAB) gun irradiates atoms to activate material surface bonding.

Previous room-temperature wafer bonding systems used ion guns, which could not acheive 8" wafer bonding. Whereas an ion gun radiates an argon ion beam, a FAB gun radiates a neutral atom beam of argon, which acheives about 20x greater energy per particle. The FAB gun removes oxide films on the bonding metal material’s surface. MHI’s supporting beam radiation technology also helps evenly activate the entire 8" wafer. Results show robust metallic electrode bonding for 3D integrated LSI circuits.

The process works with silicon and various metals. By eliminating heat stresses, the machine makes a wider range of materials available for 3D packaging. The room temperature process leads to a rigid, reliable bond in less time than a heat/cool process.

The system’s cassette holds 20 8" wafers and can perform wafer conveying and alignment for bonding automatically. The machine set preliminary bonding conditions for each wafer individually in high mix environments.

MHI is now looking to develop this technology for 12" wafers.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (TSE: 7011, ‘MHI’) makes heavy machinery. For more information, please visit the MHI website at www.mhi.co.jp.

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