Singapore’s A*STAR’s Institute of Microelectronics (IME), and Hitachi Chemical Co., will be collaborating on a joint research program to develop high performance material technologies for thin wafer processing for 3D IC packaging.

"Our expertise, experience and infrastructure in 2.5D/3D IC process-integration, thin-wafer-handling, and assembly flow provide a compelling value proposition for advanced materials manufacturers to test their products and overcome key technical barriers in the commercialization of 2.5D/3D IC technology,” said Prof. Dim-Lee Kwong, Executive Director of IME. “IME is in a strong position to enable materials development that is increasingly critical to ramping advanced packaging technologies to high volume manufacturing.”

The Interconnect and Packaging Program (IPP) at IME focuses on strategic research areas in the research and development of 3DIC and TSV technologies, including: 3D stacking with chip-to-wafer (C2W) and wafer-to-wafer (W2W) bonding technologies, embedded wafer level packaging, integrated passive device (IPD) with Si or polymer substrate, MEMS packaging, electrical, thermal, mechanical design, materials, process and reliability.

Due to the temperature-hermeticity-sensitivity of the MEMS/MOEMS devices and the thermal-stress effects of the 3D stacked dies, there is a critical need for lower wafer bonding temperatures of below 200°C. At IME, the current R&D focus on low-temperature processes includes: Wafer-to-wafer bonding of hermetic sealed MEMS/MOEMS devices, and chip-to-wafer bonding of 3D stacking with TSV technology and microbump interconnects.

3D research at IME is also focused on TSV formation, including:

•           Dielectric isolation materials and processes

•           High-speed via architectures and filling methods

•           Electrical design and characterization of Si-interposer

•           Global/local design and modeling of interconnects of Cu/ultra low-k large chips

•           Microbump interconnection design, materials, assembly processes and reliability

“IME has strong background technologies of microelectronics, especially in IC packaging technologies, and Hitachi Chemical has many kinds of material for the electronics. I believe this joint research between IME and Hitachi Chemical will contribute greatly to the progress in advanced 3D IC packaging technologies.” said Shun-ichiro Uchimura, Vice President and CTO of Hitachi Chemical.”

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