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Multi-chip integrated Fan-Out packages and high I/O CSPs demands for higher routing density on wafer level. Due to that, the classical mask aligner lithography and photosensitive thin-film polymers used for BEOL reach its limits and new technologies and materials are necessary to generate lines and space down to two μm. These multi-metal layers set also higher demands on the mechanical properties of the materials. This paper presents a new excimer laser dual damascene process for ultra-fine routing for BEOL. Various materials like low cure temperature polyimide, BCB and 15-μm thick dry-film ABF material are structured by using an excimer laser stepper with a reticle mask to realize feature size below four μm with a high throughput. Micro-vias with a diameter below five μm are realized with high aspect ratio, which overcome the photolithographic limitations of the common used photosensitive thin-film polymers. The laser structuring allows to use innovative dielectric materials for WLP with optimized mechanical and electrical parameters for example inorganic filled polymers like dry-film ABF materials, which do not have to be photosensitive. The ablations depth per laser pulse and the cross-section of the ablated structures in dependence of the ablation parameters was investigated. The depth of embedded lines was set by number of pulses aside of integrated micro-vias. The lines and micro-vias were metallized with copper by galvanic process and the following CMP step removes the copper outside the ablated structures. The CMP removes only the copper and the metal of the seed-layer, which has the functions of an adhesion and barrier layer, stays intact. The under-etching of the conventional wet etch seed layer removal is a major problem for the fine line structures realized by the Laser Dual Damascene process. Due to that, the removal of the seed layer (usually titan) was investigated and it could be shown, that this layer can be removed by the excimer laser system. The stepper like system allows a sub-micron alignment accuracy with no need of a capture pad of the embedded lines. Test structures have been designed and fabricated with lines and spaces below 10 μm to demonstrate the dense multi-layer routing capability where the excellent reliability can be proven by air to air thermal cycling (from −55°C up to 125°C), current leakage and electro migration test.

Glasses are homogeneous, many glasses have excellent dielectric properties at GHz frequencies and some have thermal expansions (CTE) which are close to silicon. Ultrathin glasses (UTG) with thicknesses of 25 μm to 200 μm (0.001 to 0.0079 inch) offer numerous options for packaging, integration and co-processing in semiconductor manufacturing processes. We introduce SCHOTT UTG including paths to further improve their mechanical stability and strength. We use laser ablation in 50μm thick glass and show via fabrication with a potential of mass manufacturing with via diameters of 30μm, 38μm pitch and a position accuracy of +/− 1μm. The structures are metallized using sputtering and electroplating which leads to hermetic, tight conducting through glass-vias (TGV).

There is a strong demand to increase the routing density of the RDL to match the requirements for future microelectronic systems which are mainly miniaturization and performance. Photo-resists for structuring the metallization or acting as a mold for electroplating are common for very fine lines and spaces due to the developments in the front-end processing. For example chemical amplified Photo-resists are now moving in the back-end and wafer level packaging process. The results are mainly governed by the performance of the equipment i.e. the photo-tool. This is different for the permanent dielectric polymer material. The major difference in photo-resists and dielectric photo-polymer are the different functions of the material systems. Photo-resists are only temporary masks for subsequent process steps like etching and plating. This is different for the photo-polymers which are a permanent part of the future systems. In this paper a new technology is discussed which uses a laser scanning ablation process and BCB-Based Dry Film low k Permanent Polymer. Laser ablation of polymers is in principle not a new technology. Low speed and high cost was the major barrier. But the combination of a scanning technology together with quartz masks has opened this technology to overcome the limitation of the current photo-polymer process. The new technology is described in detail and the results of structuring BCB-Based Films down to less than 4 μm via diameter in a 15 μm thick film has been shown. The via side wall can be controlled by the fluence of the laser pulse. Test structures have been designed and fabricated to demonstrate the excellent electrical resistivity of the vias using a two-layer metallization process.