Novel Flip Chip Technologies for Ultra Thin Chip
Telecommunication equipment that supports high-level information networks is being made portable, small and lightweight. Thus, the miniaturization of semiconductor devices is necessary, and chip thinning and flip chip technologies are key in achieving it. The typical flip chip manufacturing steps for thin semiconductor devices are as follows. First, semiconductor elements are formed on a wafer. Surface protective tape is attached to the surface of the wafer and backside grinding is performed to make the wafer thin. Then, dicing tape is attached to the backside of the wafer and the wafer is diced from the surface side, using a diamond blade, and divided into chips. Then, the chips are picked up, using pick up needles and bumps are formed on the surface of the chip. Next, seal resin is attached to a substrate, then the surface of the chip is attached to the substrate with the seal resin and flip chip interconnection and sealing are performed to mount the chip. This manufacturing step has some problems. In this paper, a novel thin package manufacturing process is described.
The development of Cleaving — DBG + CMP process
As telecommunication equipment that supports high-level information networks is being made portable, the requirements for telecommunication equipment to be small and lightweight are becoming stricter. Thus, miniaturization of semiconductor devices is necessary, and wafer dicing and chip thinning technologies are important key technologies to achieve it. Wafers are thinned by mechanical in-feed grinding using a grindstone containing diamond particles, and wafers are divided by mechanical blade dicing using a diamond blade. However, mechanical processes using diamond grits leave damage such as chipping, saw mark or residual strain on chip surfaces; thus, chip strength decreases. At chip thicknesses of 50 to 200 µm, such damage has to be avoided. In this study, novel manufacturing process steps for thin semiconductor devices are followed. 1) Irradiating dicing lines of wafer with a laser instead of blade dicing 2) Laminating the wafer surface protective tape 3) Cleaving the wafer into chips 4) Grinding until the final thickness + 5 um, that is simular DBG 5) Mirror finishing by CMP 6) Tape mounting the wafer onto dicing tape or DAF (Die Attach Film) 7) Removing the wafer surface protective tape. We named these process steps Cleaving — DBG.
Aging live Antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals
This study describes a method for extracting post-canine or incisor teeth from live antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) and southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonina) respectively and their use to determine age in a field situation. Dental elevators were used to loosen the teeth from the alveolus and periodental ligament. Most teeth were removed within l-2 min and a total of 214 and 81 teeth were collected by this method from antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals respectively. No seal recaptured at intervals up to a year after a tooth was extracted showed signs of infection or distress related to removal of the tooth. Teeth were thin-sectioned for the purpose of aging. In both species cementum growth layer groups were a more satisfactory indicator of age than dentinal growth layer groups. Estimates of age from cementum growth layers were confirmed for Antarctic fur seals using seals which had been tagged as pups up to 16 yr before sampling.