2004 Advanced Packaging Awards
09/01/2004
Die Attach Equipment & Materials
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Automatic Die/Glass Bonder
AD/GA898CC is an automatic die and glass bonder with dominant foreign material (FM) protection. FM particles as small as 5 µm can block the microlens of CMOS sensors, leading to device rejects. FM protection is important for the assembly process of image sensors despite the fact that the equipment already is located in a Class 100 cleanroom. Having achieved stringent cleanliness control, the bonder incorporates features from mechanical design to material selection, including clean bath and clean cells that serve as small clean rooms along with workholders that supply controlled laminar flow of ionizing air; a die picking sequence that prevents FM particles from falling on wafer surfaces; and more. The machine's design can increase assembly yield 60 to 95%. The bonder is capable of handling different types of devices, cavity or non-cavity, with high-quality bonding. ASM Pacific Technology Ltd., Hong Kong, SAR, www.asmpt.com.
Dispensing Equipment/Molding/Underfill Equipment and Materials
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Mold Bleed Flash Removal System
Current trends for encapsulating packages expose certain surfaces of the package, including leads and die pads. However, exposed surfaces lead to issues such as mold bleed and flash (MBF) on die leads and die pads. Current technologies to remove such packaging issues include media deflashing, mechanical buffing and wet chemical deflash, which have their own set of problems. Phoenix removes MBF for pre-plate lead frames and does not involve mechanical contact during the deflashing process. It is a hybrid system that uses plasma technology from the front-end of semiconductors for wafer fabrication and assembly for cleaning substrates for die attach, wire bond and molding processes. The system includes a gas chemistry formulation to capture waste and diffuse plasma energy to be channeled to the target. The key technology is in optimizing plasma energy density and optimum arrangement of the target and the various ground and power planes. ASM Technology Singapore, Singapore, www.asmpt.com.
Environmentally Friendly Materials
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Paste/Adhesive Removal System
SonicOne is a fully automatic, ultrasonic, non-hazardous, environmentally safe, paste/adhesive removal system. This is an advanced stencil cleaning/misprint system — insert the stencil into the transport shuttle and the system automatically provides wash, rinse and dry functions in less than four minutes. The system removes all paste types including rosin, water soluble and no-clean pastes as well as all SMT adhesives. It also is compatible with all chemistries on the market today. Misprinted boards are a challenge, and most systems only clean stencils and not actual product. However, the system can take a misprinted board that is populated on one side and clean the misprinted side ultrasonically with sound waves without damaging the fully populated side. The system also offers an internal wash-solution recycler. Wash solution is automatically filtered and reused, providing maximum chemical life and low chemical costs. Aqueous Technologies Inc., Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., www.aqueoustech.com.
Flip Chip Attach Equipment & Materials
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Flip Chip Platform
8800 FC Quantum platform allows high throughput in a single machine for various flip chip applications. The system's dual bonding system (DBS) executes individual bonding steps in parallel. It consists of two flip modules, two gantries — each fitted with a bond head and substrate camera, two slide fluxers and two upward-looking cameras. From one eject position, the tools of two flip units pick up the die from a wafer. After the flip process, the die is picked, dipped in the slide fluxer and measured relative to the tool by the upward-looking camera before being bonded onto the substrate. DBS also enables the platform to achieve up to 10,000 UPH throughput (dry cycle), and simultaneously maintain constant, secure process times and 10 µm at 3 sigma placement accuracy. Datacon Technology AG, Trevose, Pa., www.datacon.at.
Handling Equipment/Fixtures
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Final Test Handler
Electroglas Sidewinder is a test handler that enables final test handling of the latest geometries of packaged ICs while lowering the cost of test. The handler's basic concept considers packages in assembly arrays rather than individual devices, allowing for handling of large matrixes of parts in final test. This same approach is used during wafer probe, so the new concept treats packaged devices in assembly strips similar to the way wafers are considered for probe. The system uses machine vision alignment and handling methods that differ from those used in existing wafer probers, as well as from methods used in existing test handlers. The handler's high speed and highly precise machine vision combine with multiple handling methodologies to allow the handler to triple the throughput of currently available test handlers, and also makes testing possible for any current or planned geometry of a packaged device. Electroglas Inc., San Jose, Calif., www.electroglas.com.
Inspection/Imaging Equipment
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Wafer Inspection System
Until now, automated wafer inspection has required a fragmented approach: one system performs surface defect inspection while another performs bump metrology, where required 3-D metrology typically operates at a fraction of the speed of surface defect inspection, negating the benefits of combining platforms. However, the WS-3500 provides proven defect detection with the flexibility to include 3-D metrology as required. ShapScan proprietary 2-D machine vision technology offers high overkill control compared to competitive systems, providing high possible yields while limiting defect review. MicroMap 3-D is the only technology available that sufficiently minimizes the "speed vs. measurement stability" compromise that neutralizes the viability of all competitive 3-D technology for production. RVSI, Hauppauge, N.Y., www.rvsi.com.
Novel Package Design
Direct Chip-to-chip Signal Transmission Technology
Off The Top (OTT) IC packaging technology improves the performance and signal integrity of high-speed chip I/Os by modifying existing semiconductor packaging solutions and allowing board-level designers to integrate ICs to achieve MCM performance without the cost. This solution offers uninterrupted high-speed signal channels between chips. The result is that these ICs can communicate at full silicon speed without resorting to exotic PCB materials, costly SERDES or complex electronic I/O structures. Currently qualified IC package structures can be adapted to use technology and can be designed, produced and assembled using existing infrastructure technology. The only difference is that high-speed signals are segregated and accessed on top while I/Os on the package's bottom are used for power, ground and slower speed signals. SiliconPipe, San Jose, Calif., www.sipipe.com.
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Package Design Software & Equipment
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CAD/CAM Software
X-CAM is a CAD/CAM product for the company's line of Xise products. The system defines CAD for wafers, configures wafer-specific parameters for machines, creates operations to process wafers, sequences operations and generates process programs. It features both on- and off-line capabilities and provides customers with the tools to control and evolve their products and processes. This is performed is an easy-to-use environment that provides for simulation of possibilities before machine validation, ensuring that non-variable process variants are eliminated at the virtual stage. Enabling most of the product and process development off-line means that the machining systems are not burdened with excessive product trials and are dedicated to production. Xsil Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, www.xsil.com.
Specialized Advanced Packaging Equipment & Materials
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Single Process Co-planar Gold Bumper
Model 8000 Single Process Co-planar Gold Bumper produces planarized gold bumps in one step. The bumper uses its bond-head motion to form precise gold bumps by repeatedly shearing the wire off the top of the bump without leaving a tail. This forms flat bumps, eliminating the need for a secondary coining process. "Soft tooling," achieved with Windows-based software, which enables changes in ball array, minimizes setup time and fixturing, position and shapes to match the desired attach xprocess. A finished bond height consistency of 2 µm (at 3 sigma) is achieved with better than 5-µm placement accuracy. Gold wire is used for a lead-free process. The process runs automatically at a cyclical rate of >10 bumps per second. Palomar Technologies, Vista, Calif., www.palomartechnologies.com.
Substrate and Submount Materials & Technologies
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Probe Chip
By exploiting the same advanced tools used to design and manufacture modern semiconductors, the Celerity Probe Chip card circumvents the cost per pin penalty associated with conventional probe cards. Using "chips to test chips" revolutionizes the test tooling cost model and also technologically enables the ITRS roadmap. The probe chip leverages EDA and simulation infrastructure to provide more accurate and predictable test tooling performance. It is a fully scalable solution with the repeatability and reproducibility of semiconductor fab technology. Celerity Research, San Jose, Calif., www.celerityresearch.com.
Quality Assurance/Management Tools
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Design and Content Software
SymXpert Pro automatically extracts PCB library content from suppliers' component datasheets and checks for accuracy. It then saves symbol content in an EDA-neutral format, allowing OEMs and ODMs to create standardized design libraries without displacing current design tools. The Intelligent design content can be leveraged and shared across multiple design locations, specifications and EDA tools. The application allows engineering organizations to reduce the cost of building and maintaining symbol libraries, create 99.78% error-free symbols 24X faster than doing it manually, and validate the correctness and consistency of symbols to meet specifications. ChipData Inc., Richardson, Texas, www. chipdata.com.
Reflow Equipment
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Selective Soldering Station
Version Pro-8 T and B, 60 W Diode Laser Cell with Vision Guidance is an in-line soldering station that combines performance, software and precision movement to selectively solder most top- or bottom-side applications. A special lens configuration automatically adjusts to keep the laser at full power output, and the solder feed tube also dynamically adjusts, allowing it to reach the proper height for soldering. Because the laser can be precisely controlled, is highly repeatable and provides a focused heating zone, it results in better control to and around the component. Changeover from tin/lead to lead-free soldering also can be accomplished within minutes. Pro-mation Inc., Kenosha, Wis., www.pro-mation-inc.com.
Surface Treatment Equipment & Materials
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Plasma Treatment System
FlexTRAK is a configurable, high-throughput plasma system. Its universal architecture accommodates numerous material handling configurations to support an assortment of variable-size form factors. Configurations include magazine-to-magazine processing for single and multiple strips or lead frames, reel-to-reel, wafer processing, and standalone for island-based production environments. The system features application flexibility for direct, downstream and ion-free (patent-pending) plasma that allows treatment without exposure to the direct plasma glow discharge; a compact, three-axis symmetrical chamber and proprietary process control for unmatched process uniformity; and short cycle times with throughputs up to 480 substrates or 800 strips/hour. March Plasma Systems, Concord, Calif., www.marchplasma.com.
Testing Equipment
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Test Socket Web Tool
For today's semiconductor test engineers, the time span between notification of a requirement and first silicon has been reduced to weeks. A challenge in meeting this expectation is the development of the customized test socket. SocketBuilder.com transforms the way test sockets are purchased. Through proprietary Web technologies, the site has accelerated test socket design to approximately five minutes. Step-by-step, the user specs out their application, chip, electrical performance criteria, handler type, etc. In minutes, SocketBuilder.com e-mails a hyperlink to a detailed manufacturing drawing and a preliminary estimate. Currently, the site automates design for QFN and area-array packages. It also specs the appropriate sprint contact probes. Synergetix, Kansas City, Kan., www. synergetix.com.
Wafer Dicing/Thinning Equipment
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In-line Grinding System
DGP8760 and DFM2700 in-line system provide a 300-mm solution for ultra-thin grinding, stress relief, DAF lamination and post-grinding tape functions. DGP8760 uses a 3-spindle, 4-chuck, 1-turntable configuration to process three wafers simultaneously: rough grinding, fine grinding and dry polishing. Because it uses no chemicals or slurry, it is cost effective and environmentally friendly. Also, DFM2700 provides advanced DAF lamination and post-grinding tape functions: mounting of wafers in dicing frames followed by UV irradiation and protective tape removal. Because each wafer remains on the same chuck table throughout processing on the DFM2700, wafer handling and associated risks are reduced. Disco Hi-Tec America Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., www.discousa.com.
3-D Packaging Technology
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Drilling Production System
Xise 300V is a high-volume production system that allows for laser drilling of clean vias through silicon and other materials. Targeted at stacked-die applications, the high-volume production system creates clean vias through silicon and other materials. With a platform designed for drilling vias and machining wafers up to 300 mm, the system allows for high-volume manufacturing of clean vias through silicon at rates up to hundreds of vias per second. Complete with bare wafer handling and top- and bottom-side vision, the system offers wafer inversion capabilities. The process also allows for clean drilling through various, individual material layers in wafer thicknesses from microns up to more than 1 mm. Xsil Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, www.xsil.com.
Thermal Management Technology
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Leadless Plastic Package
Thin Array Plastic Package (TAPP) is a leadless package that features high I/O capability, single and multiple rows, 0.4-mm thicknesses for some applications, and an exposed die-attach pad, allowing for optimum thermal performance. The exposed die pad (when soldered to a PCB) provides a direct thermal path from the chip to the copper plane on the PCB, the latter acting as a heat sink. This reduces the thermal resistance of the package by as much as 50%. Environmentally friendly, the package is available in lead-free and green options. It also offers 99.8% yields because of its simple process flow and chemically milled processing. The package features low test cost because it is strip-test compatible without any additional preparation steps. ASAT Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., www.asat.com.
Wafer-level Packaging Equipment & Materials
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Wafer Printing/Bumping System
SemiTouch Wafer Printer system (STW-1) is capable of wafer stencil printing and bumping within a single system — by pressing a button, the system converts from a wafer bumper to stencil printer in seconds. The patented vibration squeegee technology uses vibration to both spread the paste uniformly and to remove air that becomes trapped in the apertures with the vibration movements, which allows for a uniform print. Paste scavenging is eliminated and less paste is required to print. The printer uses a bottom-side stencil cleaning system with ultrasonic vibration and cleans six strokes back and forth in less than six seconds. The blades are fully cleaned during operation by ultrasonic cleaning. Milara Inc., Medfield, Mass., www.milarasmt.com.
Wire Bonding Equipment
Automatic Ball Bonder
Offering bond placement accuracy of 2.5 µm, the Maxµmplus High Performance Automatic Ball Bonder excels when advanced looping capabilities are required, such as forward folded low loops, CSP long inboard loops, advanced BGA loops, ultra low, and J-wire loops. Improving on the Maxµm X-Y-Z servo control system, the bonder reduces wire cycle times to 63.0 msec, and optimizes the most frequently occurring short X-Y motions, increasing productivity. This performance is maintained over a single pass bonding area of 56 × 66 mm (2.2 × 2.6"). Kulicke & Soffa Industries Inc., Willow Grove, Pa., www.kns.com.