Method of increasing reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice
First Claim
1. A method to increase a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice, the method comprising:
- identifying a die cluster, the die cluster consisting of dice having failed an electrical test;
identifying a core die from the die cluster;
adding the core die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
adding at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map;
adding at least one tier of buffer dice to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map; and
indicating dice from the die cluster and tier of buffer dice, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Semiconductor dice are electrically tested prior to final assembly. Dice failing the test are identified and not packaged. However, “good dice” (i.e., those dice that passed testing) in proximity to the failed dice frequently fail prematurely in the field. Therefore, in one embodiment, a method to identify those dice having a probability for early failure includes identifying a core die and a die cluster, adding the core die and at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map, and assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map. At least one tier of buffer dice is then added to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map. Both the dice from the die cluster and the tier of buffer dice are marked, thereby preventing those dice from being packaged and consequently, shipped to customers.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method to increase a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice, the method comprising:
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identifying a die cluster, the die cluster consisting of dice having failed an electrical test;
identifying a core die from the die cluster;
adding the core die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
adding at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map;
adding at least one tier of buffer dice to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map; and
indicating dice from the die cluster and tier of buffer dice, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method to increase a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice, the method comprising:
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identifying one or more dice having failed an electrical test;
adding the one or more failed dice to a weighted character map;
adding a first tier of buffer dice to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map; and
indicating both the failed dice and the tier of buffer dice, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method to increase a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice, the method comprising:
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identifying a die cluster, the die cluster consisting of dice having failed an electrical test, identifying a die cluster comprises determining whether a die which failed an electrical probe test is surrounded by a plurality of other dice which also failed the electrical probe test;
identifying a core die from the die cluster, identifying a core die comprises locating an electrically malfunctioning die surrounded by the plurality of other electrically malfunctioning dice;
adding the core die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
adding at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map;
assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map, the weighting value for any particular die is determined by the number of electrically malfunctioning dice on the weighted character map surrounding the particular die;
adding a first tier of buffer dice to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map;
adding a second tier of buffer dice to the weighted character map adjacent to each of the first tier of buffer dice on the weighted character map, the second tier of buffer dice being located adjacent to an edge of the first tier of buffer dice; and
indicating dice from both the die cluster and tier of buffer dice, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification