• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.693-694
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• 2009

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.35-38
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.68-74
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• 2014

The seed step-coverage enhancement process (SSEP) using Pd/Cu/PVP colloids was investigated for the filling of through silicon via (TSV) without void. TEM analysis showed that the Pd/Cu nano-particles were well dispersed in aqueous solution with the average diameter of 6.18 nm. This Pd/Cu nano-particles were uniformly deposited on the substrate of Si/$SiO_2$/Ti wafer using electrophoresis with the high frequency Alternating Current (AC). After electroless Cu deposition on the substrate treated with Pd/Cu/PVP colloids, the adhesive property between deposited Cu layer and substrate was evaluated. The Cu deposit obtained by SSEP with Pd/Cu/PVP colloids showed superior adhesion property to that on Pd ion catalyst-treated substrate. Finally, by implementing the SSEP using Pd/Cu/PVP colloids, we achieved 700% improvement of step coverage of Cu seed layer compared to PVD process, resulting in void-free filling in high aspect ratio TSV.

• Journal of the Optical Society of Korea
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.531-537
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• 2014

Through-silicon vias (TSVs) are fine, deep holes fabricated for connecting vertically stacked wafers during three-dimensional packaging of semiconductors. Measurement of the TSV geometry is very important because TSVs that are not manufactured as designed can cause many problems, and measuring the critical dimension (CD) of TSVs becomes more and more important, along with depth measurement. Applying white-light scanning interferometry to TSV measurement, especially the bottom CD measurement, is difficult due to the attenuation of light around the edge of the bottom of the hole when using a low numerical aperture. In this paper we propose and demonstrate four bottom CD measurement methods for TSVs: the cross section method, profile analysis method, tomographic image analysis method, and the two-dimensional Gaussian fitting method. To verify and demonstrate these methods, a practical TSV sample with a high aspect ratio of 11.2 is prepared and tested. The results from the proposed measurement methods using white-light scanning interferometry are compared to results from scanning electron microscope (SEM) measurements. The accuracy is highest for the cross section method, with an error of 3.5%, while a relative repeatability of 3.2% is achieved by the two-dimensional Gaussian fitting method.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.557-564
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• 2010

Formation of Sn through-silicon-via (TSV) and its interconnection processes were studied in order to form a three-dimensional interconnection structure of chip-stack packages. Different from the conventional formation of Cu TSVs, which require a complicated Cu electroplating process, Sn TSVs can be formed easily by Sn electroplating and reflow. Sn via-filling behavior did not depend on the shape of the Sn electroplated layer, allowing a much wider process window for the formation of Sn TSVs compared to the conventional Cu TSV process. Interlocking joints were processed by intercalation of Cu bumps into Sn vias to form interconnections between chips with Sn TSVs, and the mechanical integrity of the interlocking joints was evaluated with a die shear test.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.68-73
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• 2014

Among through silicon via (TSV) technologies, for replacing Cu filling method, the method of molten solder filling has been proposed to reduce filling cost and filling time. However, because Sn alloy which has a high coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) than Cu, CTE mismatch between Si and molten solder induced higher thermal stress than Cu filling method. This thermal stress can deteriorate reliability of TSV by forming defects like void, crack and so on. Therefore, we fabricated SiC composite filling material which had a low CTE for reducing thermal stress in TSV. To add SiC nano particles to molten solder, ball-typed SiC clusters, which were formed with Sn powders and SiC nano particles by ball mill process, put into molten Sn and then, nano particle-dispersed SiC composite filling material was produced. In the case of 1 wt.% of SiC particle, the CTE showed a lowest value which was a $14.8ppm/^{\circ}C$ and this value was lower than CTE of Cu. Up to 1 wt.% of SiC particle, Young's modulus increased as wt.% of SiC particle increased. And also, we observed cross-sectioned TSV which was filled with 1 wt.% of SiC particle and we confirmed a possibility of SiC composite material as a TSV filling material.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.643-653
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• 2014

To reduce interconnect delay and power consumption while improving chip performance, a three-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) has been developed with die-stacking and through-silicon via (TSV) techniques. The power supply problem is one of the essential challenges in 3D IC design because IR-drop caused by insufficient supply voltage in a 3D chip reduces the chip performance. In particular, power bumps and TSVs are placed to minimize IR-drop in a 3D power delivery network. In this paper, we propose a design methodology for 3D power delivery networks to minimize the number of power bumps and TSVs with optimum mesh structure and distribute voltage variation more uniformly by shifting the locations of power bumps and TSVs while satisfying IR-drop constraint. Simulation results show that our method can reduce the voltage variation by 29.7% on average while reducing the number of power bumps and TSVs by 76.2% and 15.4%, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.18-22
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• 2009

• Laser Solutions
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.14-20
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• 2011

The advantage of using lasers for through silicon via (TSV) drilling is that they allow higher flexibility during manufacturing because vacuums, lithography, and masks are not required; furthermore, the lasers can be applied to metal and dielectric layers other than silicon. However, conventional nanosecond lasers have disadvantages including that they can cause heat affection around the target area. In contrast, the use of a picosecond laser enables the precise generation of TSVs with a smaller heat affected zone. In this study, a comparison of the thermal and crystallographic defect around laser-drilled holes when using a picosecond laser beam with varing a fluence and repetition rate was conducted. Notably, the higher fluence and repetition rate picosecond laser process increased the experimentally recast layer, surface debris, and dislocation around the hole better than the high fluence and repetition rate. These findings suggest that even the picosecond laser has a heat accumulation effect under high fluence and short pulse interval conditions. To eliminate these defects under the high speed process, the CDE (chemical downstream etching) process was employed and it can prove the possibility to applicate to the TSV industry.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.931-941
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• 2014

Many methodologies for clock mesh networks have been introduced for two-dimensional integrated circuit clock distribution networks, such as methods to reduce the total wirelength for power consumption and to reduce the clock skew variation through consideration of buffer placement and sizing. In this paper, we present a methodology for clock mesh to reduce both the clock skew and the total wirelength in three-dimensional integrated circuits. To reduce the total wirelength, we construct a smaller mesh size on a die where the clock source is not directly connected. We also insert through-silicon vias (TSVs) to distribute the clock signal using an effective clock TSV insertion algorithm, which can reduce the total wirelength on each die. The results of our proposed methods show that the total wirelength was reduced by 12.2%, the clock skew by 16.11%, and the clock skew variation by 11.74%, on average. These advantages are possible through increasing the buffer area by 2.49% on the benchmark circuits.