The SEMI International Standards Committee has approved the formation of a Taiwan 3DS-IC Standards Committee, which will work closely with the North American 3DS-IC Standards Committee to develop the standards urgently needed to make low-cost, high-volume manufacturing a reality. The committee will be led by Yi-Shao Lai, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) Group; Wendy Chen, King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC); and Tzu-Kun Ku, Taiwan Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
As Ku explains, "SEMI Standards are manufacturing needs-oriented through the whole 3DS-IC industry supply chain, and based on its well-established semiconductor production experience, Taiwan is eager to actively contribute to SEMI 3DS-IC standardization." Several Taiwan-based TSV, bonding and thinning, testing, inspection and metrology, and equipment and materials companies will be contributing, with initial efforts expected to focus on testing and middle-end processes.
The Test Task Force will be led by Sam Ku of KYEC, Roger Hwang of ASE, and Alex Shu of ITRI. This group will work on defining a common testing standard and methodologies for probe tests at different manufacturing stages on heterogeneous chip stacks, passive interposers, or the complexity module to enable the high yield and reliable final systems. The Middle-End Process Task Force will be led by Arthur Chen of CMPUG and Jerry Yang of SEMATECH, along with staff from ASE and ITRI, and examine 3DS-IC middle-end processes involving shared activities between wafer foundries and OSATs, including embedded via protrusion and viaed wafer thinning, and define outgoing and incoming inspection items and metrologies for intermediate viaed wafers, in-process ESD criteria, in-process inspection items and metrologies in viaed wafer thinning process.
Several SEMI Taiwan members are already active in the North American 3DS-IC Committee, so communication and collaboration between the two regions has a strong head start. Yi-shao Lai of ASE, who will chair the new Taiwan Committee in addition to leading the North American Inspection & Metrology Task Force, describes his motivation, "SEMI has a strong reputation for successful standardization, which is why the Taiwan 3DS-IC industry has selected the global SEMI Standards platform to develop consensus on materials, equipment, and other manufacturing areas where standards are needed to drive down cost."