Icarus Indium Deposition System

The Intlvac Icarus deposits indium for bump bonding by evaporation, in production. It’s used for flip-chip bonding of focal plane arrays, for quantum computing devices and for semiconductor packaging. The system is built for throughput and low maintenance: a load-locked carrier takes wafers in and out without venting the main chamber, and it runs hundreds of depositions without opening the main chamber. More on the process: indium bump deposition.

Throughput

A full 4 µm indium run completes in under 2.5 hours, and the coating is spit-free. An optional cassette load lock shortens the cycle further.

Wafers and carriers

Icarus takes wafers of any size and shape up to 200 mm in diameter, on carriers made to suit the product. Standard carriers hold three 75 mm wafers, two 100 mm or one 150 mm, with positions for witness pieces, or a single 200 mm wafer without.

Load lock and pre-clean

The load lock is automatic or manual, for single and multi-wafer configurations, and transfers and pre-conditions single wafers up to 200 mm. It has a cleaning position that removes light surface contamination, oxides and water vapour from the wafer without etching it, before the carrier moves it into the chamber.

Wafer temperature

Wafers are fixed to the carrier by dry thermal bonding: they’re held in air by Van der Waals force on a thermal interface mounted to the carrier, under vacuum hold-down. Thermal bonding gives wafer temperature control from +60°C down to -75°C.

Deposition and lift-off

The geometry of the system gives a very flat, uniform deposition front, which is what clean lift-off depends on. Thickness, fill and film properties can be set for a range of solder bump designs.

Indium is evaporated from Intlvac’s Helios source, a large, thick-walled molybdenum crucible that gives a very stable evaporation rate over a long life. When it’s time to refill, the empty crucible is swapped for a pre-charged one in a few minutes, either in place or loaded elsewhere.

Maintenance

An internal deposition shield, positioned to maximise indium reclamation, lifts out easily. The chamber liners are removable too, and can be swapped for the spare set that comes with the system.

Working with SiSTEM

SiSTEM is Intlvac’s partner for the UK, Ireland and most of Europe. We scope your system with you and Intlvac’s engineers, and stay your local contact through quotation, installation and after-sales. Tell us your wafer sizes and bump design, and we’ll take it to Intlvac.