Ultra Tec Manufacturing, Santa Ana, Calif., has developed new hybrid 3D backside thinning and polishing techniques for the achievement of extremely uniform remaining silicon thickness. Full die thickness uniformity of less than +/- 1 micron has been demonstrated on ultrathinned dies using a hybrid curve-plus-thermal technique.
Die warpage measurement and modeling during the 3D thinning process has been shown to improve polishing results. By adding in ‘in situ’ thermal relaxation techniques, the dynamic flexing of the package can be mitigated, thus improving the uniformity results obtainable on products such as Ultra Tec’s ASAP-1 IPS Interactive Preparation System. The new hybrid curve-plus-thermal techniques utilize patent-pending techniques and strive to allow the 3D sample preparation process to become as convenient as processing a flat substrate.
The resulting uniform-thickness die enables improved results on a range of backside analytical techniques such as SIL, laser scans, backside FIB-edits, thermal, and SQUID, to name a few.
