Electronic equipment involving semiconductive devices are essential for many modern applications. Technological advances in materials and design have produced generations of semiconductive devices where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. In the course of advancement and innovation, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometric size (i.e., the smallest component that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. Such advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing semiconductive devices.
As technologies evolve, designs for devices become more complicated in view of smaller dimensions and an increase of functionality and the amount of circuitries. Numerous manufacturing operations are implemented within such a small and high performance semiconductor device. The manufacturing of the semiconductor device in a miniaturized scale becomes more complicated, and the increase in complexity of manufacturing may cause deficiencies such as high yield loss, poor reliability of the electrical interconnection, low testing coverage, etc. Therefore, there is a continuous need to modify the structure and manufacturing method of the devices in the electronic equipment in order to improve device robustness as well as reduce manufacturing cost and processing time.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds