May 31 2014
SACHEM is announcing the release of Reveal Etch™, a wet chemistry designed to enable a single-step silicon etch / TSV reveal process. SACHEM and Solid State Equipment, LLC (SSEC) developed the process for this chemistry and optimized its use in a single-wafer processor.
SACHEM Associates Dr. Yongqiang Lu, Sian Collins, Dr. Kevin McLaughlin, and Dr. Craig Allen, in conjunction with SSEC Associates Laura B. Mauer, John Taddei, and Ramey Youssef, jointly issued a technical paper on a new wet process alternative to the polish / plasma etch TSV reveal process.
SSEC and SACHEM have worked on this new chemistry since early 2013. In February of 2014, the two companies produced a technical paper and presented their findings at IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC 2014) on Thursday, May 29th.
SSEC set out to further optimize its process chemistries by working with SACHEM to develop a proprietary aqueous chemistry that contains no potassium and is residue free. Not only does this new chemistry address many issues limiting wet processing usage, but there are significant cost savings with the elimination of the extensive KOH residues clean step.
"The SACHEM Reveal Etch chemistry is a key component to our TSV Revealer configuration on the latest SSEC platform called WaferEtch™," stated Erwan Le Roy, Marketing Vice President of SSEC. "After years of dedicated R&D for this 2.5D/3D application, we enabled the lowest cost-of-ownership equipment by integrating all the key components in one single tool -- silicon thickness metrology for accurate endpointing determination, wet etch with a spin-etch chemistry to avoid using separate CMP equipment, a final etch with the Reveal Etch chemistry to uniformly expose the TSVs and wet cleaning."
"SACHEM's developmental reveal etch chemistry combines our core capability in formulation, extensive knowledge of silicon etching and our high-purity expertise. Our solution optimizes etch rate and surface roughness," stated Kevin McLaughlin, Global Electronic Materials Market Manager at SACHEM, Inc. "We have taken a significant step forward in enabling the TSV process by combining our expertise with that of SSEC," says McLaughlin.
The Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC) is the premier international event that brings together the best in packaging, components and microelectronic systems science, technology, and education in an environment of cooperation and technical exchange. ECTC is sponsored by the Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (CPMT) Society of the IEEE.
Source: http://sacheminc.com