Abstract:
A method and apparatus for testing unpackaged semiconductor dice having raised contact locations are disclosed. The apparatus uses a temporary interconnect wafer that is adapted to establish an electrical connection with the raised ball contact locations on the die without damage to the ball contact locations. The interconnect is fabricated on a substrate, such as silicon, where contact members are formed in a pattern that matches the size and spacing of the contact locations on the die to be tested. The contact members on the interconnect wafer are formed as either pits, troughs, or spike contacts. The spike contacts penetrate through the oxide layer formed on the raised ball contact locations. Conductive traces are provided in both rows and columns and are terminated on the inner edges of the walls of the pits formed in the substrate.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/923,460, filed Aug. 6, 2001, pending, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/521,332, filed Mar. 9, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,337,574 B1, issued Jan. 8, 2002, which is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/994,004, filed Dec. 18, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,827, issued Oct. 31, 2000. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to semiconductor manufacturing and, more particularly, to methods for testing semiconductor dice having raised or bumped bond pads. More particularly still, the present invention relates to fabricating and using a testing grid suitable for testing solder balls used for bumped bond pads on an unpackaged semiconductor die.  
           [0003]    Semiconductor dice are being fabricated with raised bond pads and are known as bumped semiconductor die. A bumped semiconductor die includes bond pads along with bumped solderable material such as a lead-tin alloy. These typically are manufactured from solder balls made of a lead-tin alloy. Bumped dies are often used for flip chip bonding where the die is mounted face down on the substrate, such as a printed circuit board, and then the die is attached to the substrate by welding or soldering. Typically, the bumps are formed as balls of materials that are circular in a cross-sectional plane parallel to the face of the die. The bumps typically have a diameter of from 50 micrometers (μm) to 100 μm. The sides of the bumps typically bow or curve outwardly from a flat top surface. The flat top surface forms the actual region of contact with a mating electrode on the printed circuit board or other substrate. In testing the attached solder bumps, a temporary electrical connection must be made between the contact locations or bond pads on the die and the external test circuitry associated with the testing apparatus. The bond pads provide a connection point for testing an integrated circuit on the die. Likewise, the integrity of each bump must be tested as well.  
           [0004]    In making this temporary electrical connection, it is desirable to effect a connection that causes as little damage as possible to the bumped die. If the temporary connection to the bumped bond pad damages the pad, the entire die may be ruined. This is difficult to accomplish because the connection must also produce a low resistance or ohmic contact with the bumped bond pad. A bond pad, with or without a bump, typically has a metal oxide layer formed over it that must be penetrated to make the ohmic contact.  
           [0005]    Some prior art contact structures, such as probe cards, scrape the bond pads and wipe away the oxide layer. This causes excess layer damage to the bond pads. Other interconnect structures, such as probe tips, may pierce the oxide layer and metal bond pad and leave a deep gouge. Still other interconnect structures, such as micro bumps, cannot even pierce the oxide layer, preventing the formation of an ohmic contact.  
           [0006]    In the past, following testing of a bump pad die, it has been necessary to reflow the bumps, which are typically damaged by the procedure. This is an additional process step that adds to the expense and complexity of the testing process. Furthermore, it requires heating the tested die that can adversely affect the integrated circuitry formed on the die.  
           [0007]    Other bond pad integrity testing systems have been developed in the prior art. Typically, these testing systems use optical imaging to determine the integrity of the weld connection on the bumped sites. One type of system is a profiling system that uses interferometry with robotic wafer handling to automate the testing step. The testing step develops a profile for measuring solder bump heights. Unfortunately, although the interferometry system does not damage the device in any way, the time required for analyzing each bump location can take from two to four minutes. This type of throughput is unacceptable when a high speed system is necessary.  
           [0008]    Accordingly, what is needed is a method and system for testing solder bumps in bond pad locations that does not damage the bond pads while improving throughput.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    According to the present invention, a method and apparatus for testing unpackaged semiconductor dice having raised contact locations are disclosed. The apparatus uses a temporary interconnect wafer that is adapted to establish an electrical connection with the raised ball contact locations on the die without damage to the ball contacts. The interconnect wafer is fabricated on a substrate, such as silicon, where contact members are formed in a pattern that matches the size and spacing of the contact locations on the die to be tested. The contact members on the interconnect wafer are formed as either pits, troughs, or spike contacts. The spike contacts penetrate through the oxide layer formed on the raised ball contact location. Conductive traces are provided in both rows and columns and are terminated on the inner edges of the walls of the pits formed in the substrate. This arrangement allows a system to measure the continuity across the bump pad or ball contact locations of the integrated circuit die in order to establish that each ball contact location is properly attached. This also allows the system to test for the presence and quality of the bump or ball contact locations on the particular die being tested. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING  
       [0010]    [0010]FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional diagram of a pit formed in a substrate wherein a solder ball is received;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional perspective schematic view of the pit according to FIG. 1;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 3 is a top plan view of an array of pits according to that of FIG. 1 having a metal interconnect in a form of rows and columns;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 4 is an alternative embodiment of the pit of FIG. 1 wherein raised supports are provided along with sharp blades for penetrating the ball;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 5 is an alternative embodiment of the pit of FIG. 1 wherein raised portions are provided for penetrating the solder balls;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 6 is an example of a solder ball being out of place and failing to make adequate connection between adjacent metal bonds;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 7 is an example of when a ball that is too small has been identified;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a device under test where mismatched balls are adjacent to one another; and,  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a test apparatus using the bump plate according to FIG. 3.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0019]    [0019]FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional schematic view of a bump plate  10  for testing the connect conductivity and quality of a solder ball on an unpackaged semiconductor die. Bump plate  10  is fabricated in a semiconductor substrate  12 , such as, for example, silicon, gallium arsenide, or silicon on sapphire, to name a few.  
         [0020]    A plurality of receiving pits  14  is formed in the surface of substrate  12 . Pit  14  can be any desired polygonal or curved shape, but is preferred to be square with four sloped side walls  16 . Each wall  16  is at an angle of 54° from horizontal, conforming to the plane of the surface of the silicon substrate that can be used in fabricating bump plate  10 . After pits or suitable features are etched (formed), the surface of the plate is coated with a thin layer insulator of about 200-300 Angstroms (such as Si Oxide) before the metal traces are formed. Electrical connection for testing for the presence of the solder balls on the die is provided by metal traces  18 . Metal traces  18  are made from a suitable metal and extend across the surface of substrate  12  and down walls  16  of pit  14 . A solder ball or bump  20  can then be positioned within pit  14  and contact all four sloped walls  16 . Ball  20  is placed within pit  14  when a die under test is mated with bump plate  10 . Since a metal trace  18  is placed on each wall  16  and extends across the surface of substrate  12  to an adjacent pit  14 , an applied electric current can flow through metal traces  18  provided the solder ball  20  contacts both sides of wall  16  and metal trace  18  thereon.  
         [0021]    A method that is adaptable for manufacturing bump plate  10  is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,736, “Fabricating An Interconnect For Testing Unpackaged Semiconductor Dice Having Raised Bond Pads,” commonly assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, and herein incorporated by reference for all purposes.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 2 depicts, in a cross-sectional perspective view, pit  14  prior to the addition of metal trace  18  of FIG. 1. Pit  14  has a substantially flat bottom surface that is non-conductive as well as four adjacent side walls  16 , again having the slope angle that naturally slopes 54° in the surface plane of silicon substrate  12  as it is etched. The sloped wall  16  allows for a spherical ball  20  to seat within pit  14  without damaging the bottom curvature of ball  20  while still contacting metal trace  18  that extends down the slope of wall  16 .  
         [0023]    Bump plate  10  has a plurality of pits  14  and is shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 3. Bump plate  10  actually is an array of bump pits  14  that is electrically connected in rows and columns using metal traces  18 . Horizontal metal traces  18  run across the surface of substrate  12  and down the sloped walls  16  of the bump pits  14 . It is important that metal traces  18  do not connect with one another within pits  14 . As an electric current is placed across each row and down each column in a sequential manner, it becomes readily apparent at each pit  14  location whether a ball exists or the connection is of such poor quality as to provide no conduction across the row or down the column. From this information, a grid map of the defects can be established that will allow repair of the missing or poor quality bumped locations at a subsequent repair stage.  
         [0024]    Alternative embodiments to pits  14  within the substrate  12  are shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. FIG. 4 illustrates a raised contact location  30  for contacting the bottom surface of a solder ball  20 . Each raised contact location  30  comprises a set of side bumps  32  that form a valley  36 . A plurality of sharpened projections  34  is formed within valley  36  and is designed to pierce the oxide layer formed over ball  20  and can be attached to adjacent metal traces  18  for providing good ohmic contact to adjacent metal traces  18  with ball  20  for testing purposes. Contact location  30  can be in the shape of a polygon or circle and can be combined with pits  14  of FIG. 3.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 5 is an alternative embodiment where each pit  14  is replaced with a post trough  40 , which is formed by a plurality of posts  42  to form a polygon, such as a square. Posts  42  are formed such that a valley  44  is formed in post trough  40 . Metal traces are formed up and down the sides of post  42 , but not connecting one another in the same manner as traces  18  in FIG. 3. Thus, when a ball  20  is placed in a post trough  40 , a good ohmic connection forms between opposite traces  18  for conducting a test current. Further, post trough  40  can be in the shape of a polygon or circle and can be combined with pits  14  of FIG. 3 or contact locations  30  of FIG. 4.  
         [0026]    Each of the embodiments of FIGS.  1 - 5  is capable of testing for various types of solder ball conditions. The most significant is when a missing ball occurs. This is simple to detect in that no current will flow either across the column or down the row when the test current is applied. Other examples are also possible and are illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7, and  8 . FIG. 6 is an example of when a solder ball  20  is off center and only contacts one or two sides of pit  14 , thus preventing a good current signal from passing either across the column or down the row. FIG. 7 is an example of a ball  20  too small to touch any sides in pit  14 . In this condition, no current can pass and it is viewed as being that no solder ball is present. FIG. 8 depicts where adjacent balls of different sizes are attached to die  50 . A first ball  20  has a first diameter and a second ball  52  has a second diameter, which is much smaller than the first diameter of ball  20 . As is shown, ball  20  is an appropriate size and contacts well with the sides of pit  14 . By contrast, ball  52  is too small to even reach pit  14 , so the current signal test shows it as not being present at all. Of course, the reverse can be true in that ball  52  is actually the desired size of the balls while ball  20  is an aberration and is much larger than desired. This would be also be evident in that many balls would be seen as not being present as the diameter of ball  20  would prevent several adjacent balls from contacting in their respective pits.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 9 depicts a test apparatus  54  that uses a bump plate  10 , or a bump wafer  10 . Apparatus  54  comprises a signal processor, such as a computer system  56 , that attaches to a bump plate  10 . Electrical signals or current are passed to bump plate  10  along rows and columns of the metal traces  18  to establish a test pattern. A device under test (DUT)  58  is pressed upon bump plate to match the solder ball pattern to the identical pattern fabricated on bump plate  10 . Once contact, is made, the test, is begun and the results are obtained more quickly compared to prior art test apparatus using optical or other mechanical means previously described.  
         [0028]    The bump die wafer inspection apparatus of the present invention offers the following advantages over the prior art. As the electronic world moves toward stencification miniaturization, better methods for testing these technologies are needed and this solution provides an advancement over those previously available and, using semiconductor fabrication techniques, a bump plate matching a desired solder ball pattern for a particular die can be generated. The silicon or other similar substrates serve as a rigid medium, and as a result of this rigidity, they have a fixed dimensional test capability for each bump/ball testing site. This limits its use with regard to the range of the dimensional tolerances that it can test. This is significant in that the bumps, or balls, or both, require tight dimensional tolerances to pass such testing. The silicon micro-machining and photolithography processes allow much more precise geometry control than the printed circuit board (PCB) or film technologies found in the prior art. Hence, a more definitive distinction and grading is made for each ball shape and position. Additionally, the present apparatus provides a unique methodology for electronically mapping the failing ball sites and then utilizing this map to direct a repair or rework system to correct each failing site. These operations of testing, mapping, and subsequent repair can be combined in a highly automated in-line process, thus reducing the necessary steps previously required in the prior art of removing the bad boards and sending them to the rework section of the fabrication operation.  
         [0029]    Another advantage is since the semiconductor substrate can be planarized to a uniform flatness compared to the PCB and other processing solutions, less damage is caused to the good solder balls attached to the DUT.  
         [0030]    Thus the invention provides an improved method and system for testing a discrete, unpackaged semiconductor die having raised bond pads. Although specific materials have been described, it is understood that other materials can be utilized. Furthermore, although the method of the invention has been described with reference to certain specific embodiments as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.