A Dry Etch Approach To Reduce Roughness and Eliminate Visible Grind Marks in Silicon Wafers Post Back-Grind

3D wafer packaging represents a significant component of the total wafer level processing cost. Replacement of the Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) process step with a corresponding dry etch can yield significant time and cost savings. Incorporating equipment already utilized in the 3D integrated wafer packaging process during the subsequent Through Silicon Via (TSV) reveal step, process efficiencies can be achieved, with overall die yields being maintained. Using dry etch technology to treat a 200nm rough back-ground silicon surface, a smooth surface with a peak to valley roughness of less than 6nm is demonstrated. This patented process differs from other dry etch smoothing techniques in that it aims to eliminate any visual grind marks rather than just reducing the surface roughness. The elimination of visible grind marks is critical in later optical inspection where they are falsely identified as defects. The quality of the surface is equivalent to that of a CMP processed wafer and as such, this process has been implemented in manufacturing replacing the CMP step. The novel process described combines a surface modification followed by a roughness reduction in an iterative manner to produce a smooth surface without visible grind marks post processing.