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Glossary of Technical Terms

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300mm technology
Wafers are disks of purest monocrystalline silicon, the basic material used in manufacturing microchips. By far the largest number (over 90%) of silicon wafers in use today are 200mm in diameter. The larger the diameter, the more chips can be made on one wafer (and the lower the production costs per chip). A transition is currently under way from a wafer diameter of 200mm to one of 300mm. It requires an adaptation of manufacturing and process technologies used in semiconductor technology.
Advanced packaging
This term describes modern technologies to “package” microchips in their containers. All microchip contacts must be taken individually to the outside of the container to ensure a connection to the printed circuit board. In the more recent chip designs the number of contacts per chip has increased to over 1,000. Advanced packaging involves packaging processes that employ methods previously used only in so-called frontend manufacturing of microchips themselves, such as lithography and photoresist technologies.
Atom
The smallest stable element that occurs in nature. Atoms are subdivided by size and properties into elements (the periodic system).
Backend
Second, rear link in the microchip production chain. The backend process begins once the wafer has passed through all frontend process steps in the manufacture of the microchip itself. In this process, microchips are tested on the wafer and, if required, prepared for bonding. The wafers are then sawn up into individual microchips that are packaged in their container. For reasons of cost, backend process work is mainly done in Asia, where semiconductor manufacturers have production facilities of their own or let third party packaging foundries handle testing and packaging.
Biochip
A small silicon, glass, plastic or paper chip divided into a large number of microstructures containing special probes of biologically active molecules.
Bluetooth
A technology for wireless transmission of speech and data across short distances using short-wave radio frequencies. It is mainly used for wireless communication between electronic devices, such as between mobile phone and headset or between PC and printer, etc.
Bonding
Attaching two or more components or wafers to each other by means of various chemical and physical effects. Adhesive bonding, for example, uses adhesives, as a rule epoxy resins or photoresist. Fusion or direct bonding directly links two wafers that initially are only connected by the weak atomic forces (van der Waals forces) of water molecules in the borderline layer. Heated, the water molecules are then broken down, and the oxygen atoms released combine with the wafer’s silicon atoms to form the covalent bond silicon oxide, which is a very strong, non-soluble bond of the two wafers.
Bump
A metallic (solder, gold or similar) three-dimensional contact on a chip. It is simply described as a solder ball on a single microchip contact.

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Chip
General term used for semiconductor components. In electronics a chip or microchip is understood to mean an integrated circuit embedded in a container. From outside, all you can see is the black container and the contacts that link chip and printed circuit board (by wire or flip-chip bonding). The piece of silicon in the container is frequently also referred to as a chip or microchip.
Cluster
A group of individual process modules that is fed by a central robot with wafers for processing.
Compound semiconductor
Semiconductors made up of several elements, such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, silicon germanium etc. Depending on the compound there are advantages over silicon, like speed, high temperature compatibility or less energy consumption than simple silicon chips.
Cost of ownership (CoO)
This assesses acquisition and operating costs as well as costs of the clean room space utilized, wear and tear, and maintenance of the machines. These costs are then calculated in relation to the proportion of functioning components at the end of the production process. The higher the output of perfect chips, the better the “cost of ownership” of the machines for the customers. An outstanding CoO is greatly significant, especially in mass production.
C4NP
IBM pioneered Flip Chip Bonding in the late 1960s.This technology was used for the first time in 1973 with IBM System 3. Since then, billions of chips have made contact with the outside world via this process under the name IBM C4. C4 means Controlled Collapse Chip Connection and is sometimes also used as a synonym for Flip Chip Bonding. C4NP is the next generation technology of the proven C4 process. The “NP” stands for New Process.
Device Bonder
The Device Bonder, in contrast to a Wafer Bonder, handles electronic components that have already been separated from the wafer. These are then bonded either onto another wafer or onto other diced components before final packaging.
Die
Integrated circuits are known as dies until they are inserted into a container. They take shape on the wafer as the die undergoes its many process steps. The dies are on the wafer throughout the entire production process. Only when they are finished is the wafer cut up into individual ICs for insertion into containers. They are then known as chips. Die, IC and chip are often used synonymously, however.
DRAM
Dynamic Random Access Memory. The most widespread chip worldwide.

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Fab
A fab (as in fabrication) is a manufacturing facility where ICs are produced on wafers. Building a large fab complete with clean rooms and equipment today costs around USD 1.5 billion to USD 4 billion.
Flip-chip bonding
An advanced bonding technique between chip and container that makes higher clock frequencies possible in signal transmission. The active side of the chip is face-down and therefore has to be flipped, or turned over, before assembly. SUSS Device Bonders are used for this process
Flip Chip
A flip chip is one type of mounting used for semiconductor devices, such as IC chips, which does not require any wire bonds. Instead the final wafer processing step deposits solder bumps on the chip pads. After cutting the wafer into individual dice, the "flip chip" is then mounted upside down in/on the package and the solder reflowed. Flip chips then normally will undergo an underfill process which will cover the sides of the die, similar to the encapsulation process. The terminology flip chip originates from the upside down (i.e. flipped) mounting of the die. This leaves the chip pads and their solder beads facing down onto the package, while the back side of the die faces up. This mounting is also known as the Controlled Collapse Chip Connection, or C4. Flip Chip is an area within the broad term “Advanced Packaging”
Foundry
A chip factory where microchips are manufactured to a circuit design that is specified by the customer. Making goods to order in this way, the foundry operators have no chip design, product sales or marketing costs and can therefore focus their R&D resources entirely on the process technology. The leading foundries are located in Taiwan and Singapore.
Frontend
Frontend processes are the production steps to produce the chips themselves on the wafer. This is where the chip itself is made. Backend processes in which chips are tested on the wafer follow. The wafer is sawn up into individual chips that are then inserted into a container.
GaAs
Gallium arsenide, a semiconductor material used in the manufacture of microchips for optoelectronic and high-frequency applications. Due to its higher electron mobility than silicon, this material can be used to make faster microchips and more powerful equipment.
IC
Integrated Circuit: consists of electronic components such as transistors, resistors and capacitors that are integrated on a tiny microchip. Today, tens of millions of integrated cells are housed in circuits on a single chip. This high integration density has led to enormous chip performances.
LCD-TFT
Liquid Crystal Display, Thin-Film Transistor. LCDs are liquid crystal displays consisting of two plates of glass and live strip conductors. The liquid crystal between the plates is transparent to visible light. If an electric field is generated in them, the crystals are no longer transparent and a black dot takes shape. TFT is a special technology that is used to trigger LCDs electrically. Unlike its passive matrix alternative, it can trigger every single pixel via a transistor. This so-called active matrix technology produces a better image quality than a passive matrix LCD.
LED
Light Emitting Diode. LEDs are semiconductor components that can generate light. They emit a very bright light yet at the same time consume very little energy. What is more, their life span is more than ten times that of a conventional light bulb.
Lithography
The electrical circuits of ICs are created by structuring individual strata on a silicon wafer in a type of layer structure. To create very small structures in the individual strata, the wafer is coated with a light-sensitive material (photoresist) and then exposed using a mask. The structures on the mask correspond to those that are to be created on the ICs in this step. Where the mask is blocking the light, the photoresist on the wafer is not exposed. Where it is transparent, light falls onto the wafer and the photoresist is exposed. This leads to a chemical change that enables the photoresist to be dissolved in a developing bath. During development after exposure, the exposed photoresist areas are cleared above the strata and can be accessed by the following process step. Typical structure sizes for frontend lithography applications nowadays are between 0.13µm and 0.6µm. In advanced packaging at the backend, structure sizes ranging from several microns to tens of microns are generated by photolithography to create, for example, bumps for flip-chip bonding.

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Mask
A plate of glass or quartz glass on which the patterns are mapped that are required to make up an IC. These patterns consist of transparent and opaque areas that correspond in size and shape to the circuits required. The mask is then used in the lithography step to expose certain areas and thereby to define the areas to be etched.
Mask Aligner
Mask Aligners align a glass mask to a wafer (covered with photosensitive material previously spun or sprayed on by a coater) with sub-micrometer accuracy. The glass mask is patterned with the structures which need to be transferred onto the wafer. These structures will then build electrical circuits, grooves and bridges – all the various things that the chip needs in order to function. The pattern is transferred onto the wafer by means of exposure not un-similar to a photographic procedure.
MEMS
MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) is the term used mainly in North America for microsystem technology (MST), a term which is more usual in Europe. Semiconductor production technologies and processes are used to manufacture mechanical and other non-electrical elements integrated with electrical components. MEMS products are used in, for example, telecommunications, optoelectronics and medical technology.
Micrometer/micron
A metric unit of length, symbol: µm. A micron is a millionth of a meter. The diameter of a human hair is approximately 60µm.
Microsystem
A system made up of different components each less than 1mm in size.
Microsystem Technology (MST, MEMS,MOEMS)
This term is defined differently by region. In Europe it means the entire miniaturization of precision mechanics component structures of less than 1mm. In the United States and Asia, in contrast, microsystem technology or the more frequently used Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) means the use of semiconductor electronics technologies to produce the smallest of sensors or even complex systems such as a complete chemical or biological analysis unit. MEMS components include, for example, the silicon acceleration sensor that is used to activate an airbag or an ink-jet printer cartridge nozzle.
Molecule
Atoms can combine to form a molecule and assume totally different properties.
Nanotechnology
(greek. nãnos = dwarf) A collective term comprising a broad range of technologies, which deal with structures and processes in spatial dimensions ranging from one up to several hundred nanometers. One nanometer is the billionth part of one meter (10-9 m) and defines a border range where the typical dimensions of a single molecule are found. Nanotechnology is a stringent continuation and expansion of microtechnology mostly pursued by disruptive approaches. The tasks of nanotechnology comprise the creation of materials and structures in the nanometer range.
Nanoimprinting
A mechanical method to create two- or three-dimensional structures in the nanometer range. In contrast to photolithographic production of devices on semiconductor wafers, the structures are formed by stamping patterns in soft polymers. The future importance of nanoimprinting will be in cost savings. Classical photolithography equipment will, if extended to extremely short wavelengths of light, become very expensive.

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Optoelectronics
Semiconductor lasers, LEDs and photodiodes, etc. can be used to generate or detect light by deliberately combining semiconductor electronics technologies and materials such as gallium arsenide. This technology is mainly used in telecommunications to transmit very large data quantities (fiber-optic networks). LEDs are also put increasingly to automotive and domestic use in view of their many advantages, such as low energy requirement, very high brightness and very long lifespan.
Packaging foundries
See “BACKEND”
PDA
Personal Digital Assistant. An electronic address book, appointment calendar and notebook.
Photoresist
A light-sensitive material that is first applied as a layer to the wafer and then exposed through a mask using ultraviolet light. In exposed areas the ultraviolet light brings about chemical changes. These changed areas are dissolved from the layer during development, leaving a relief-like structure in the photoresist coating. This process is very similar to the one used in photography.
Plasma (treatment)
Plasma is a gas in which atoms, ions and free electrons coexist simultaneously. Electrical fields can be used to accelerate electrons and ions and bring about changes when they collide with a surface. What is more, plasma can generate radiation that can be used, depending on its wavelength, to subject materials to radiation treatment.
Probe System / Prober
Probers carry out individual analytical tests of microchips. Using special needles, electrical signals from microscopic structures within the chip are captured and analyzed. Alternatively durability tests using pressure, electric current, force, heat or cold show whether the chips meet the requirements and point to any errors at an early stage. The modular construction of our Prober makes it extremely flexible, which is very much appreciated particularly in development projects.

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Semiconductor
A monocrystalline material whose electrical resistance can be changed by implanting foreign atoms into its crystal grid. Silicon is the most important and also the most frequently used semiconductor element. ICs made of silicon are often called semiconductors.
Sensor
A component that is used to record and convert measurements such as temperature, pressure or acceleration. They are converted into electrical signals and relayed to a signal evaluation unit.
Silicon
A material with the structure of a crystal lattice with semiconducting properties. Semiconducting means that the material can be used as a conductor or non-conductor depending on the inclusion of certain foreign atoms. In the semiconductor industry, silicon in monocrystalline disk form is used as the most common base material.
Spin / Spray Coaters
Coaters spread a photosensitive resist on the wafer. The SUSS MicroTec Spin Coater specializes in thick photo resists, which are applied to the wafers. The Spray Coater sprays a substrate and can thus also coat three-dimensional structures evenly.
Substrate Bonder
An older name for Wafer Bonders
Systems-on-chip
Highly complex ICs incorporating many different functions. Until recently these functions had to be accommodated on several ICs. The enormous innovative momentum in process technology that has made it possible to manufacture ICs with ever smaller line widths now means that different kinds of memory, digital signal processors and analog functions can be accommodated on one chip. The advantage is that instead of many chips, only a handful or even a single one is needed, thereby reducing the space needed, the cost of assembly (and, therefore, the cost of the end product) and, most importantly, the power requirement. In battery-powered equipment, such as notebooks and cell phones, battery life is thereby prolonged. The trend toward ever smaller, mobile devices that are, moreover, set to become less and less expensive makes systems-on-chip increasingly important.
Test Systems
SUSS MicroTec uses this terminology for the Business Division manufacturing probe systems. However in the industry a test system includes the entire test set-up including such items as Vector Network Analyzers, Characterization tools, cables, microscopes etc.
Tool
Machinery, tools, robots, etc. Tools are all the individual systems that make up a production line in a semiconductor factory.
Wafer
Slices of purest silicon on which chips are produced. Over the past 10 years their diameter has increased from 150 via 200 to today’s 300mm. Twice as many chips fit onto the surface area of the latest 300mm wafers than onto a 200mm wafer, cutting production costs by around 30%.
Wafer Bonder
The Wafer Bonder bonds together two or more substrates, usually wafers, very precisely to one another, by welding, gluing or other physical-chemical processes. Many MEMS components require this processing step. Only in this way can our airbags, tire pressure sensors, GPS sensors, ink jet printers, etc. function at all.
Wire bonding
A common contact process that connects chips with the outside world by using metal wires.
Wireless LAN
The term wireless Local Area Network refers to the computer networks that exist in every office building. In a wireless LAN, wires are replaced by a technology that is similar to the one used by cell phone networks.
Yield
One of the key parameters in semiconductor production. It measures the output of the functioning microchips in relation to the total number of microchips on a wafer. The higher the yield, or output, the cheaper and more effective the chip production for the customers.

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