Development of 25- -Pitch Microbumps for 3-D Chip Stacking

The development of ultrafine-pitch microbumps and the thermal compression bonding (TCB) process for advanced 3-D stacking technology are discussed in this paper. Microbumps, consisting of Cu pillars and thin Sn caps with a pitch of 25 μm, are fabricated on an Si chip by the electroplating method. Total thickness of the Cu pillar and the Sn cap is 10 μm. Electroless nickel and immersion gold pads with a total thickness of 4 μm are fabricated on an Si carrier. TCB of the Si chip and the Si carrier is conducted on an FC150 flip-chip bonder, and a good joining with higher than 10-MPa die shear strength is achieved. After bonding, the bond line thickness between the Si chip and the Si carrier is filled with the selected capillary underfill material. Void-free underfilling is achieved with underfill materials which have a fine filler size. Ninety percent of the bonded samples can pass the thermal cycling test (-40/+125°C) with 1000 cycles and the highly accelerated temperature/humidity stress test (130°C , 85% RH) for 96 h.