Using Glass Carriers for Precision Wafer Thinning and Warpage Control

Abstract: Glass, with its manifold compositional tweaking, offers the widest possible range of attributes and properties relevant to carrier performance in wafer thinning as well as in advanced packaging. In this presentation, we will first focus on the topic of wafer ultra-thinning of semiconducting as well as piezo materials. We will demonstrate that the desire for thinner substrates can be realized with 1) carriers that exhibit extremely low total thickness variation (TTV), and 2) an associated temporary bonding method that presents extremely low thickness variation as well. The combination of Corning’s recently announced ultra-low TTV carriers with near-zero TTV bonding methods has proven to be a powerful tool to guarantee high precision thinning of various wafer types. On the topic of carrier properties, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) plays a major role in the control of in-process warpage in buildup structures such as fan-out wafer level packaging and multi-layer laminates. We will present several use cases when specifically-tuned CTE is advantageous to reduce stress within a given process environment. Corning’s Advanced Packaging Carrier (APC) product family offers glass wafers with CTE that varies from 4.9-12.6 ppm/C with fine granularity of 0.2 ppm/C, in addition to silicon-matched glasses with a CTE of 3.4 and other glass types that go all the way down to 0 ppm/C. This portfolio enables the right choice of glass for each and every application to optimize processability. Bio: Julia Brueckner serves as Global Applications & Product Engineering Manager for the precision glass solutions business unit that provides glass wafers to the semiconductor industry. Finding technical solutions to the toughest customer challenges for semiconductor and consumer electronics applications is her team’s mission. Julia joined Corning in 2019 and started as Sales and Applications Engineer before she took over the role as Sales and Business Development Manager to support customers in the EMEA region. Prior to joining Corning, Julia worked as an applications scientist for Sentronics Metrology and promoted process control equipment in the US semiconductor industry. She received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Heidelberg University, Germany, focusing on laser spectroscopy.