Method for Determining Substrate Via Yield
Michael
Meeder, Michael Fresina, Charles Whitman
RF Micro Devices, Inc. 7628 thorndike
road, Greensboro, NC 27409
Email: mmeeder@rfmd.com Phone:
336-678-8295
The substrate via (backside via) is an integral part of any GaAs power amplifier process and via yield is critical to performance. Further, the continuing need to decrease die size makes any reduction in substrate via diameter desirable. In this paper we propose a substrate via test structure that can be used along with simple statistical methods to determine the substrate via yield when making a process change or improvement. It can also be used to quantitatively compare different processes.