Effect of local stress induced by thermal expansion of underfill in three-dimensional stacked IC

A three-dimensional stacked IC (3D IC) is a one of the promising structures for enhancing IC performances. A 3D IC consists of several materials such as a Si substrate, metal for through Si via (TSV) and microbump, organic adhesive called the underfill, and so on. These materials generate a coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch. On the other hand, heat is generated in the Si substrate during circuit operation and in the environment outside 3D IC, for example. Both the CTE mismatch and heat generation induce local stress caused by expansion of the underfill injected around metal microbumps. In this paper, we report our investigation results of the effects of adhesive expansion on transistor performances by finite element method (FEM) simulation and measurement of transistor characteristics.