Stress Relief in Semiconductor Wafers
AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited
InventorsHojin Kim, Stephen Mancini, Soo Doo Chae
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Abstract
This disclosure describes a method for fabricating a plurality of semiconductor devices in a semiconductor wafer includes: bowing a semiconductor wafer including a substrate by covering the substrate with a strained layer; forming trenches at locations in scribe lines of the semiconductor wafer, the scribe lines identifying areas between adjacent dies on the semiconductor wafer; and reducing the bowing of the semiconductor wafer by filling the trenches with a stress-compensation material.
Claims20
A method for fabricating a plurality of semiconductor devices in a semiconductor wafer, the method comprising:
- bowing a semiconductor wafer comprising a substrate by covering the substrate with a strained layer;
- forming trenches at locations in scribe lines of the semiconductor wafer, the scribe lines identifying areas between adjacent dies on the semiconductor wafer;
- and
- reducing the bowing of the semiconductor wafer by filling the trenches with a stress-compensation material.
A method for fabricating a plurality of semiconductor devices in a semiconductor wafer, the method comprising:
- bowing a semiconductor wafer comprising a substrate by covering the substrate with a strained layer and hard mask layer;
- forming trenches in the hard mask layer at locations in scribe lines of the semiconductor wafer, the scribe lines identifying areas between adjacent dies on the semiconductor wafer;
- and
- reducing the bowing of the semiconductor wafer by overfilling the trenches with a stress-compensation material and removing an excess portion of the stress-compensation material overfilling the trenches.
A method for reducing bowing in a semiconductor wafer, the method comprising:
- designing a photomask, wherein designing the photomask comprises:
- obtaining a predetermined bowing of a semiconductor wafer and based thereon obtaining a predetermined volume of a stress-compensation material;
- obtaining a predetermined depth of trenches to be formed in scribe lines of the semiconductor wafer;
- determining a pattern of trenches based on the predetermined depth of the trenches and the predetermined volume of the stress-compensation material, wherein the trenches are placed at locations in an area of the photomask for the scribe lines of the semiconductor wafer;
- forming a photomask with the determined pattern of trenches based on the designed photomask;
- processing a semiconductor wafer, the processing forming a strained layer covering a substrate, wherein the wafer is bowed after forming the strained layer;
- forming trenches at locations in the scribe lines using photolithography with the designed photomask, the trenches having a depth dimension;
- and
- filling the trenches with the stress-compensation material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.