Ultrathin chips for flexible electronics and 3D ICs

Ultrathin chip fabrication is an enabler of high-performance hybrid systems-in-foil (HySiF) for flexible electronics as well as 3D IC's. Minimum chip thickness, exact thickness control, uniformity and reproducibility as well as smoothness of chip surfaces and edges are important requirements in both applications. Most commonly, thinning is arranged at wafer level prior to chip singulation, which is classified as a subtractive method. In contrast, an additive thin-chip technology called ChipFilm™ is presented here, meeting all those requirements. It is shown that by using ChipFilm™ both wafer-level and chip-level thinning are feasible.