Quality & Reliability General Guidelines

General Guidelines for Die Products processing and handling environments:

Relative Humidity.............35% to 55%

Temperature.....................22 C to 30 C

Clean Room Facility  ......class 10K or less

Die Inspection Definitions:

Active circuit area : includes all areas of functional circuit elements, operating metallization or any connected combinations there of excluding beam leads.

Foreign material : is defined as any material that is foreign to the microcircuit or any non-foreign material that is displaced from its original or intended position within the microcircuit package and shall be considered attached when it cannot be removed by a nominal gas blow (approximately 20psig).  Conductive foreign material is defined as  any substance that appears opaque under those conditions of lighting  and magnification used in routine visual inspection.  Particles shall be  considered embedded in the glassivation when there is evidence of  color fringing around the periphery of the particle.

Glassivation : is the top layer of transparent insulating material that covers the active circuit area including metallization, except bonding  pads and beam leads. Crazing is the presence of minute cracks in the  glassivation.

Original width : is the width dimension or distance that is intended by design (e.g. Original metal width, original diffusion width, original beam  width. Etc).

Peripheral metal :  is all metal that lies immediately adjacent to or over the scribe grid.

Scratch : is any tearing defect, including probe mark, in the surface of the active metallization.

Cracks/chips : any crack, fracture, or chip into the die or the active metallization excluding alignment aids or identification mark.

Missing metal : any defect in the metallization where underlying metal or oxide is visible that is not caused by a scratch.

Corrosion : is any unintentional etching of metallization.  Liquid or gelatinous droplets (usually transparent droplets found along the stripe edges or along the etch line of the bonding pads or both) may eventually cause corrosion.