# US 2014/0151437 A1 · Apparatus for mounting semiconductor chips on a circuit board

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- Number: US 2014/0151437 A1
- Document ID: US20140151437A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 14/089,366
- Filed: 2013-11-25
- Published: 2014-06-05
- Earliest claimed: 2012-11-30
- Assignees: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Applicants: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
- Inventors: Il-Soo Choi; Min Kim; Tae-Ho Moon; Ju-Young Yu; Sung-Bok Hong
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20140151437A1

## CPC

- H10W 72/0711: {Apparatus therefor}
- H10W 72/072: {of bump connectors}
- H10P 72/744: {Details of chemical or physical process used for separating the auxiliary support from a device or a wafer}
- H10W 72/07178: {Means for aligning}
- H10W 72/07183: {Means for monitoring}
- H10W 72/07211: {Treating the bond pad before connecting, e.g. by applying flux or cleaning}
- H10W 72/07236: {Soldering or alloying}
- H10W 72/20: Bump connectors, e.g. solder bumps or copper pillars; Dummy bumps; Thermal bumps
- H10W 72/252: {comprising solid metals or solid metalloids, e.g. PbSn, Ag or Cu}
- H10W 90/724: {between a chip and a stacked insulating package substrate, interposer or RDL}
- H10W: GENERIC PACKAGES, INTERCONNECTIONS, CONNECTORS OR OTHER CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H10P: GENERIC PROCESSES OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10

## Abstract

A chip mounting apparatus includes a loading unit, a combining unit and a bonding unit. The loading unit loads a circuit board having contact pads and semiconductor chips having solder balls into the chip mounting apparatus. The combining unit positions the semiconductor chip onto a respective mounting area of the circuit board and combines the solder balls of the semiconductor chip with the contact pads of the circuit board by using flux. The combining unit has a flux coater for coating the solder balls with the flux and a flux controller for automatically supplementing the flux to the flux coater. The bonding unit bonds the solder balls to the respective contact pads by a reflow process.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus for mounting semiconductor chips on a circuit board, comprising:
a loading unit loading at least a circuit board and at least a plurality of semiconductor chips into the apparatus, the circuit board having an inner circuit pattern and a plurality of contact pads connected to the inner circuit pattern and the semiconductor chip having a plurality of contact terminals;
a combining unit positioning the semiconductor chip onto a respective mounting area of the circuit board and combining the contact terminal of the semiconductor chip with the contact pad of the circuit board by using flux, the combining unit having a flux coater for coating the contact terminal with the flux and a flux controller for automatically supplementing the flux to the flux coater; and
a bonding unit bonding the contact terminals of the semiconductor chip to the contact pads of the circuit board using a heat treatment.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the flux coater comprises:
a body having a coating bath filled up with the flux that is coated on the contact terminals; and
a flux tank holding the flux and moving across the coating bath between first and second standby areas of the body while supplying the flux to the coating bath, and
wherein the flux controller comprises:
a level sensor over the flux tank adjacent to at least one of the first and second standby areas of the body detecting a flux level of flux residuals remaining in the flux tank as a first signal.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the level sensor comprises:
a detection section generating ultrasonic waves and detecting reflective ultrasonic waves reflected from an inside of the flux tank;
a head section controlling the detection section; and
a guide section protruding from the head section in a direction along which the ultrasonic waves are sent thereby guiding the ultrasonic waves in the flux tank.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the detection unit includes a piezo-electric resonator for generating the ultrasonic waves.

### Claim 5 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the level sensor includes a supplementary plate positioned over the flux tank and at least one supplementary guide section penetrating through the supplementary plate, the supplementary guide section being connected with the guide section and guiding the ultrasonic waves to various areas in the flux tank.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the flux controller comprises:
a state sensor detecting operation conditions and states of the flux tank as a second signal;
a signal analyzer analyzing the first and the second signals to thereby obtain the flux level and state information on the flux tank; and
a control signal generator generating control signals for driving the flux tank and for supplementing the flux into the flux tank according to the flux level and the state information.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the flux level includes an optimal level obtained by analyzing a plurality of the first signals detected from various positions in the flux tank and the control signal for supplementing the flux is generated at a time when the optimal level is below a reference level that is a preset level of the flux in the flux tank, and
wherein the state information of the flux tank comprises at least one of a relative position of the flux tank with respect to the body, a moving velocity of the flux tank across the coating bath between the first and the second standby areas of the body and a size of the flux tank.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the optimal level includes an arithmetic average of a plurality of the flux levels corresponding to the plurality of the first signals, respectively, except for a minimal flux level and a maximal flux level.

### Claim 9 (depends on 2)

The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the combining unit further comprises:
a board support onto which the circuit board is secured; and
a chip aligner for aligning the semiconductor chip of which the contact terminals are coated with the flux in the coating bath onto the mounting areas of the circuit board, respectively, thereby combining the contact terminals of the semiconductor chips with the contact pads of the circuit board by using the flux.

### Claim 10 (depends on 9)

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the combining unit further comprises a mapping tool detecting the positions of the mounting areas and the positions of the contact terminals coated with the flux and mapping the mounting areas and the contact terminals one to one.

### Claim 11 (depends on 9)

The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the board support includes a board rail connected with the loading unit and the bonding unit and along which the circuit board moves from the loading unit to the bonding unit and a board stopper installed on the board rail for temporarily stopping the circuit board while combining the semiconductor chips with the circuit board.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bonding unit comprises:
a bonding transfer transferring the circuit board having the combined semiconductor chips and circuit board; and
a heater for performing a reflow process on the contact terminals with which the contact pads are combined by the flux.

### Claim at position 13

13-15. (canceled)

### Claim 16

An apparatus for mounting semiconductor chips on a circuit board, comprising:
a combining unit positioning the semiconductor chip onto a respective mounting area of the circuit board and combining a contact terminal of the semiconductor chip with a contact pad of the circuit board using flux, the combining unit having a flux coater for coating the contact terminal with the flux and a flux controller for automatically supplementing the flux to the flux coater,
wherein the flux coater comprises a flux tank holding the flux, and
wherein the flux controller comprises a level sensor over the flux tank detecting a flux level of flux residuals in the flux tank such that, when the detected flux level of the flux residuals is below a preset reference level, the flux controller automatically supplements flux into the flux tank.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The apparatus of claim 16 further comprising a bonding unit bonding the contact terminal of the semiconductor chip to the contact pad of the circuit board using a heat treatment.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising:
a loading unit loading the circuit board and the semiconductor chip into the apparatus and providing the circuit board and semiconductor chip to the combining unit;
an unloading unit unloading bonded semiconductor chip and circuit board from the bonding unit out of the apparatus.

### Claim 19 (depends on 16)

The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the flux coater further comprises a body having a coating bath filled with the flux that is coated on the contact terminal, wherein the flux tank holding the flux moves across the coating bath between first and second standby areas of the body while supplying the flux to the coating bath, and wherein the level sensor is adjacent to at least one of the first and second standby areas of the body.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the level sensor comprises:
a detection section generating ultrasonic waves and detecting reflective ultrasonic waves reflected from an inside of the flux tank;
a head section controlling the detection section; and
a guide section protruding from the head section in a direction along which the ultrasonic waves are sent thereby guiding the ultrasonic waves in the flux tank.