Advanced Packaging
The technology revolution is driving advances in semiconductor packaging. From smartphones and tablets to wearable technology and the IoT (Internet of Things), worldwide demand is only growing for devices with more processing power, efficiency, and miniaturization. Plasma-Therm is helping lead advanced packaging innovation with its revolutionary plasma dicing technology and processes.
In 2016, DISCO Corporation, the world's largest dicing equipment provider, signed a global distribution agreement with Plasma-Therm for our Singulator® plasma dicing systems. The agreement makes the benefits of plasma dicing available to semiconductor manufacturers worldwide through DISCO's global sales and service network.
Plasma-Therm developed Singulator® plasma-dicing technology in partnership with ON Semiconductor. Singulator® systems accommodate wafer processing on industry-standard tape frames, allowing plasma dicing to be seamlessly integrated with existing manufacturing flows.
Compared to mechanical and laser dicing, plasma dicing offers numerous advantages, including:
- Smaller streets for more dies per wafer
- No lateral damage
- Reduced stress in package
- Whole wafers diced at once
Plasma-Therm shipped the first Singulator® plasma dicing system in early 2013. Customers in Europe, Asia, and the United States have been using Singulator® systems in production since then, and have reported up to 30 percent higher die yield per wafer.
Plasma singulation also accommodates wafer thinning for increased performance, energy saving, heat management, and 3D packaging.
Singulator® technology benefits everyone
DESIGNERS can push the performance envelope with thinner wafers — and maximize return using non-orthogonal die arrangements and even non-orthogonal dies.
FRONT-END OPERATIONS increase productivity and reduce costs with fewer wafer starts — by placing more die per wafer.
BACKEND and PACKAGING maximize yield by eliminating lateral damage — and produce superior die strength — compared to using lasers and saws to separate dies.
R&D reduce costs with fast and secure singulation of limited numbers of high-value dies.
Typical Singulator® applications
On-tape-frame wafers:
- Dicing of silicon, germanium, and GaAs substrates
- Stress relief
- Wafer thinning
- Through-silicon via (TSV) reveal
Full-thickness wafers or thinned wafers on carrier:
- TSV etch
- Dicing before grinding
Systems for advanced packaging applications
Plasma-Therm and Advanced Vacuum offer systems that are configurable for various requirements, processes and settings, from R&D to pilot to production:
- Singulator®
— The industry's first production-ready
plasma dicing platform
- VERSALINE® — Maximum flexibility
and capacity
- Vision™ Series — Proven efficiency,
lowest CoO
- Odyssey HDRF™ — No-damage PR
strip, cleaning, Bosch scallop removal
- NEO — high temperature strip/clean
Contact us to learn more about innovation in advanced packaging.
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