Effect of Silicon Die Condition on the Breaking Load Performance of a Dam and Fill Semiconductor Package

A semiconductor package has a silicon die on which an integrated circuit (IC) is fabricated. The die is singulated from a single wafer using processes like mechanical sawing or laser grooving. These processes have impact on the final condition of the silicon die after wafer singulation. This paper discusses a study on the effect of the die condition on the breaking load of a package with a dam and fills structure. The encapsulation material of this type of package has lower modulus when compared with the epoxy mold compound material used in most molded packages. The package breaking load was determined using 3-point bend test for two sets of packages. The first set of packages was assembled with silicon die produced using mechanical sawing. The second set was assembled with die produced using laser grooving. Results of the 3-point bend test showed that the breaking load of the package with die from mechanical sawing is higher compared with the package assembled with die from laser grooving. The study revealed that that the silicon die condition has significant effect on the robustness of the final package where the die is used.