Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Packaging or treatment of packaged semiconductor – Metallic housing or support
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-04
2001-09-04
Chaudhuri, Olik (Department: 2814)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Packaging or treatment of packaged semiconductor
Metallic housing or support
C438S626000, C438S629000, C438S637000, C438S675000, C257S712000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284574
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As semiconductor devices become faster and more powerful with each new generation, they also generate more heat during operation than their predecessors. The ability to dissipate this heat is a crucial factor in ensuring device reliability. As shown schematically in
FIG. 1
, a heat sink
99
is typically placed on the back side
91
of a semiconductor device
90
after the device is bonded to a substrate
95
. In such an arrangement, a heat-dissipating structure is provided only on the exterior of device
90
; heat generated within the device (generally in the active area, near the front side
92
) is required to travel through the thickness of the device before it can be dissipated. There is a need for heat-dissipating structures which can be incorporated within a semiconductor device, and which can conduct heat efficiently away from the active area on the front side of the device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a structure and process are provided to facilitate the conduction of heat away from a semiconductor device. This is achieved by incorporating highly conductive planes and columns within the back-end structure and around the interconnect outside the chip. A thermally conductive plane is formed by forming a first insulating layer on a substantially planar underlying layer of the device; forming a recess in the first insulating layer; filling the recess with a thermally conductive material to form a lateral heat-dissipating layer; planarizing the heat-dissipating layer to make the top surface thereof coplanar with the unrecessed portion of the first insulating layer; and forming a second insulating layer on the first insulating layer and the heat-dissipating layer, thereby embedding the heat-dissipating layer between the first and second insulating layers. The heat-dissipating layer is electrically isolated from the underlying layer of the device.
According to the present invention, the recess in the first insulating layer is formed using a mask pattern and a resist material, while an opening in the insulating layers, exposing the underlying layer of the device, is formed using the same mask pattern and a different resist material. The formation of the lateral heat-dissipating structure thus does not require an additional mask.
A vertical heat-dissipating structure is formed by forming an opening in the second insulating layer to expose a portion of the lateral heat-dissipating layer, and filling that opening with a thermally conductive material to make thermal contact with the lateral heat-dissipating layer. Additional device levels, or additional lateral or vertical heat-dissipating structures, may be formed on top of the second insulating layer.
An additional benefit of the heat-dissipating structures can be realized by connecting them to ground, thereby reducing the noise component within the semiconductor device.
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Knickerbocker Sarah
Liu Joyce C.
Mih Rebecca D.
Petrarca Kevin Shawn
Anderson Jay H.
Chambliss Alonzo
Chaudhuri Olik
International Business Machines - Corporation
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