Parallel plasma treatment and thermocompression bonding and apparatus for effecting the same

A method of forming a bonded assembly, the method comprising:

• providing a wafer comprising at least a first packaging substrate and a second packaging substrate in a low-oxygen ambient having an oxygen partial pressure that is lower than 17 kPa;
• performing a first plasma package-treatment process on a first semiconductor package in the low-oxygen ambient while performing a first substrate-treatment process on the first packaging substrate in the low-oxygen ambient;
• and
• performing a second plasma package-treatment process on a second semiconductor package while performing a second substrate-treatment process on the second packaging substrate and while bonding the first semiconductor package to the first packaging substrate.

An apparatus for forming a bonded assembly, the apparatus comprising:

• a process chamber including chamber enclosure and an ambient control system configured to provide a low-oxygen ambient having an oxygen partial pressure that is lower than 17 kPa within a volume that is spatially bounded by the chamber enclosure;
• a first plasma treatment system located within the process chamber and comprising a first plasma nozzle and configured to generate a first plasma in a first plasma zone;
• a second plasma treatment system located within the process chamber and comprising a second plasma nozzle configured to generate a second plasma;
• a thermocompressive bonding head configured to bond a semiconductor package to a packaging substrate;
• a first transport system configured to laterally move semiconductor packages to a selected package bonding position selected from a plurality of package bonding positions;
• and
• a second transport system configured to move the second plasma treatment system to a selected plasma treatment position selected from a plurality of plasma treatment positions and configured to move a thermocompressive bonding head to a selected bonding position selected from a plurality of bonding positions.