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US 2026/0305210 A1Published application
Reticle layout with plasma-etch wafer dicing
OwnerMartin WEISS, Kirsten THOMPSON +2inventors
InventorsMartin WEISS, Kirsten THOMPSON, Abhishek JHALANI, Edward MCKENNA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Semiconductor reticles are provided with one or more die clusters. The dies in a die cluster may be separated with metal free cut zones, while scribe line regions may be disposed outside of and/or between the reticle die clusters.
Claims20
A semiconductor wafer apparatus, comprising:
- a first cluster including first-cluster dies, the first cluster including first-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the first cluster and separating the first-cluster dies;
- and
- a second cluster including second-cluster dies, the second cluster including second-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the second cluster and separating the second-cluster dies, wherein the first and second clusters are separated by at least one scribe line region that includes at least one metrology structure.
A process of making an integrated circuit (IC), comprising:
- forming a protective mask, with openings for a plasma-etch process, onto a wafer that includes a plurality of reticle fields, each field including:
- (i) a first cluster including first-cluster dies, the first cluster including first-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the first cluster and separating the first-cluster dies;
- and
- (ii) a second cluster including second-cluster dies, the second cluster including second-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the second cluster and separating the second-cluster dies, wherein the first and second clusters are separated by at least one scribe line region that includes at least one metrology structure, and wherein the openings correspond to the first-cluster and second-cluster metal free cut zones;
- at the openings, removing wafer material using the plasma-etch process;
- and
- releasing the first-cluster and second-cluster dies from the wafer.
4 more elements
A photo-lithography reticle mask apparatus for printing a reticle field onto a wafer, the mask apparatus defining a pattern comprising:
- a first cluster including first-cluster dies, the first cluster including first-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the first cluster and separating the first-cluster dies;
- and
- a second cluster including second-cluster dies, the second cluster including second-cluster metal-free (MF) cut zones surrounding the second cluster and separating the second-cluster dies, wherein the first and second clusters are separated by at least one scribe line region that includes at least one metrology structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.