Patent ID: 9337137
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: H01L

Claim Text:
1. A substrate for a semiconductor package, the substrate comprising: an array of contact pads on the substrate for receiving an array of respective conductive balls; and a solder mask material layer over the array of contact pads in which pad openings expose the array of contact pads and comprising a channel opening that extends from contact pad to contact pad between a first subset of the array of contact pads, the first subset comprising an outer perimeter of the array of contact pads for which the pad openings are smaller in diameter than the pad openings for a second subset of the array of contact pads that are not part of the first subset; wherein the contact pads of the first subset are electrically connected to each other by one or more traces along the channel opening in the solder mask material layer that extend between the first subset of the array of contact pads, the one or more traces comprising material from the conductive balls to form a ground solder shield along the perimeter.