Considering the demand for low temperature bonding in 3D integration and packaging of microelectronic or micromechanical components, this paper presents the development and application of an innovative inductive heating system using micro coils for rapid Cu-Sn solid-liquid interdiffusion (SLID) bonding at chip-level. The design and optimization of the micro coil as well as the analysis of the heating process were carried out by means of finite element method (FEM). The micro coil is a composite material of an aluminum nitride (AlN) carrier substrate and embedded metallic coil conductors. The conductive coil geometry is generated by electroplating of 500 µm thick copper into the AlN carrier. By using the aforementioned micro coil for inductive Cu-Sn SLID bonding, a complete transformation into the thermodynamic stable ε-phase Cu3Sn with an average shear strength of 45.1 N/mm2 could be achieved in 130 s by applying a bond pressure of 3 MPa. In comparison to conventional bonding methods using conduction-based global heating, the presented inductive bonding approach is characterized by combining very high heating rates of about 180 K/s as well as localized heating and efficient cooling of the bond structures. In future, the technology will open new opportunities in the field of wafer-level bonding.
Keywords: IMC; MEMS packaging; SLID bonding; electromagnetic (EM) field; induction heating; intermetallic compound; localized heating; low-temperature bonding; micro coil; selective bonding.