Processing active devices on Si interposer and impact on cost

Enhancing the functionality of interposer substrates by incorporating low-cost active devices is investigated in this paper. Different processing options for the active devices are considered and their impact on processing cost is evaluated. Furthermore, the trade-off between processing complexity and the enabled device functionality is investigated. Two applications for the active devices on the interposer are considered: (i) pre-bond testing of the interposer dies (including TSV interconnects), and (ii) migrate the ESD protection diodes from the active dies to the interposer substrate. The impact of those applications on the system cost of three different interposer-based systems is investigated.