News

19 October 2010

 

EVG launches three-chamber EVG520L3 wafer bonding system

Wafer bonding and lithography equipment maker EV Group (EVG) of St. Florian, Austria has introduced the latest addition to its EVG500 Series of permanent wafer bonding systems. The new three-chamber EVG520L3 system builds on the series' proven strengths in temperature control, piston force uniformity and modularity, with the next major implementation of the bond chamber concept addressing the need for high-vacuum, CMOS-compatible bonding processes while delivering significantly higher throughput, cost of ownership and yields, says the firm.

"We developed the EVG520L3 over several years as part of a global innovation effort driven by customers' feedback on their next-generation bonding requirements. The system's highly stable design has minimal moving parts inside the chamber, while the bonding module is fully compatible with our EVG540 single-chamber and Gemini integrated wafer bonding systems. Moreover, the bond chucks are compatible with our Gemini and EVG600 Series aligners. Together, these capabilities allow us to help our customers achieve both faster time to market and lower overall cost of ownership for their wafer bonding processes," said Paul Lindner, EVG's executive technology director.

Industry exploration of new technologies for MEMS devices and advanced packaging/3D interconnect applications is driving increased demand for flexible, reliable, processing equipment. Wafer stacking and bonding systems must be able to accommodate a variety of materials and material properties, offer faster heating and cooling, and enable parallel processing capabilities to ensure overall quality and uniformity. The EVG520L3 was developed with these requirements in mind.

According to EVG, a significant hurdle to higher throughput is long pumping times for achieving high vacuum in the device. To address this, the EVG520L3 features a new three-chamber design, which enables processing of up to three substrate stacks simultaneously. This concept utilizes pre- and post-bond process chambers, which separates the baking and pumping, high-vacuum bonding and post-bond cooling. The new layout speeds up the bond process (by up to 3x for high-vacuum and 5.5x for ultra-high vacuum).

Other enhancements:

• A heater design that supports 45 degrees C/minute heating and up to 100 degrees C/minute cooling ramps with silent wafer cooling, for improved temperature uniformity in EVG's proven heater design
• Rapid vacuum build-up to enable high-vacuum applications, such as bolometers
• Option to support up to 100kN contact force—enabling metallic bonds on the larger substrates used for MEMS and 3D IC applications
• Unparalleled force accuracy and uniformity for highest yield

EVG’s three-chamberEVG520L3 wafer bonding system is on display at this week’s SEMICON Europa in Dresden, Germany (booth #1568 - Hall 1).

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