EV Group and Panasonic team up on resist processing solution
EV Group (EVG) and Panasonic Smart Factory Solutions have announced that both companies have teamed up to provide a novel resist processing solution for plasma dicing that is developed for emerging applications, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, MEMS, RFID, CMOS image sensors and thinned memories. This advanced solution, which incorporates the EVG 100 series of resist processing systems and Panasonic's APX300 Dicer Module plasma dicer, became available from March 13, 2019.
Plasma dicing enables highly parallel and high-throughput die singulation for small devices such as sensors, MEMS and RFID chips. It also provides debris- and particle-free die singulation to enable high process yields for CMOS image sensors, as well as damage-free and high-quality chip sidewalls for thinned memories.
Plasma dicing process flow.
Plasma dicing brings new pre-process requirements, including the need for thick resist coating (several dozen microns in thickness) on the wafer's surface prior to lithography or laser patterning processes to open up the dicing lanes. However, uniform protective coating of structures on the surface, such as multi-layer interconnections and bumps, is critical with traditional spin-coating techniques.
Resist coating on bump (courtesy of EV Group).
The EVG100 series of resist processing systems with EVG's proprietary OmniSpray technology enables conformal non-dependent to topography coating of surfaces and bumps across the wafer.
Panasonic has installed the EVG100 series in its Plasma Dicing Demonstration Center in Kadoma City, Osaka, Japan, to develop high-throughput and high-quality dicing solutions by leveraging its APX300 Dicer Module combined with the pre-processes of uniform resist coating on the bumps and subsequent patterning of dicing streets enabled by the EVG100 series.
EVG and Panasonic will begin providing this novel resist coating solution to improve dicing quality and productivity through customer demonstrations in the Plasma Dicing Demonstration Center.
EVG150 automated resist processing system.
Panasonic Factory Solutions APX300 Dicer Module.
