MHI Has Developed The World's First Fully Automated 12-Inch Wafer Bonding Machine

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI) has developed the world's first fully automated 12-inch (300 millimeters) wafer bonding machine, dubbed the "Bond Meister MWB-12-ST, " capable of producing 3-dimensionally integrated LSI (large-scale integration) circuits at room temperature. The company delivered the first unit to the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Leveraging the new machine's ability to eliminate heat stress and strain in the bonding process and help achieve high productivity, MHI looks to contribute to efforts to further enhance the capacity and performance of LSIs, which currently face limitations in miniaturization. In lieu of a conventional ion beam gun, the Bond Meister MWB-12-ST adopts a fast atom beam (FAB) gun to irradiate atoms for activating a material surface to bond. Whereas an ion gun radiates an argon ion beam, an FAB gun radiates a neutral atom beam of argon. The FAB gun, which features about 20 times greater energy per particle than an ion gun, is capable of effectively removing oxide film on the surface of the bonding metal material that normally impedes bonding. Up to 20-ton weight loading is applicable for bonding. The new system is able to undertake continuous bonding of up to five 12-inch wafers and can perform wafer transfer and alignment for automatic bonding. The machine is also capable of preliminarily setting the bonding conditions for each wafer individually, to accommodate production of various types in small lots. AIST is an advanced public research institute involved in industrial technology fields. It has abundant accumulated technological knowhow including the area of room-temperature bonding, a technology that originated in Japan. Through the adoption and utilization of the MWB-12-ST at the institute, MHI hopes the new machine and its technology will contribute significantly to technological advancement of semiconductor-related industries. MHI's room-temperature bonding machine bonds various materials, such as silicon and metals, at room temperature by radiating an ion or atom beam on the surface of the bonding material - a process that has conventionally been performed by heating. By eliminating the heating process, room-temperature bonding not only frees devices from heat stress and strain, thereby enabling rigid and highly reliable bonding, but also reduces processing time by eliminating the need for a heating/cooling cycle. These advantages, coupled with automated wafer alignment, enable room-temperature bonding to achieve significantly shorter production time and a higher yield ratio, thus realizing reductions in device production costs. Source: allbusiness.com