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In Boston its called Scrod
September 17, 2007

In Beantown, down at Legal Seafood or Union Oyster House, it would be called Scrod, but  in the NW corner of Montana, right there near the continental divide, the town is known as White Fish.....much better then Scrod Montana if you ask me. Finishing up on the 3D integration news from the Semitool Peaks in Packaging meeting,  Wilfried Bair gave a nice presentation on the Ziptronix 3D bonding technology. 

Silicon fusion has been practiced before. It's biggest impediment is that it requires vias last technology after the two wafer surfaces are bonded. Copper fusion is being used by many practitioners including Intel. While forming both electrical and mechanical connections during the fusion process, Cu-Cu fusion bonding requires > 350 C for ca. 30 minutes to give you a monolithic copper-copper interface. The described "hybrid" Ziptronix technology is a combination of both. Ziptronix practices fusion of  polished Cu/SiO2 surfaces. Taking advantage of a patented amine treatment of the silicon dioxide surface, they align and bond the wafers at room temperature and remove the bonded wafers from  the expensive alignment tool. They then load the bonded wafers (bond energy reported to be > 7 J/m sq) into a furnace for a thermal anneal at 350 C in a much lower cost tool. It's this kind of cost sensitive creativity that will eventually lead 3D integration into the high volume market place. 

Finally below is the group shot of attendees of this memorable 3D meeting in Whitefish. Thanks to Semitool for their hospitality and the great jackets that we all needed as we reached the higher elevations of Glacier National Park.

Posted by Philip Garrou on September 17, 2007 | Comments (1)