A New Type of TSV Defect Caused by BMD in Silicon Substrate

This paper reports on a new type of through-silicon via (TSV) defect, silicon fin defect, which was found after TSV deep-reactive-ion-etching (DRIE) process for TSV integration with front-end-of-line (FEOL) devices. One possible root cause for this defect is that the bulk micro defect (BMD) in silicon substrate serves as a micro-mask during etching and results in silicon fin defects at TSV bottom. These defects have to be eliminated as they are killer TSV defects for several reasons: (1) could serve as a weak point for isolation liner deposition; (2) could be a weak point for barrier/seed layer deposition; and (3) may cause mechanical failures during TSV backside reveal. Previously, silicon fin defects were removed by switching to a non-BMD silicon substrate for interposer application. However, for TSV integration with FEOL devices, the BMD layer serves as an intrinsic gettering layer for devices, therefore, it cannot be removed from the silicon substrate, which makes it challenging to get rid of silicon ...