Manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits with built-in hermetic equivalent reliability

A new, thin film process for use in manufacturing high reliability integrated circuits is presented. Known as ChipSeal/sup TM/ inorganic coating technology, the approach produces the smallest realization of a completely packaged integrated circuit. Standard thin film processing and new silicon materials science has been combined to produce a hermetic equivalent, chip level package. This paper reviews the development of the thin film materials and their integration with the manufacture of silicon semiconductor devices. Reliability testing of chip scale packaged ICs is covered in detail.