Appeal 2007-2503
Application 10/225,978
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
The field of the invention is bumped semiconductor devices, wafers,
assemblies and electronic systems. (Specification, ¶ 1). Appellants’
(Micron’s) specification states that chip-on-board technology is well known
and utilized for attaching and electrically connecting semiconductor dice
directly to a carrier substrate. (Id. at ¶ 2). A chip-on-board device may be
formed using various techniques including wire bonding. (Id.). Micron’s
specification states that stud bumping bond pads on semiconductor devices
facilitate wire bonding but that prior bumps have proven neither cost
effective nor time efficient. (Id. at ¶ 5).
Micron states that gold is a favored metal for forming stud bumping
bond pads to which gold wires are stitch bonded. (Id. at ¶ 6). Micron states
that gold provides a preferred contact for thermosonic or thermocompression
bonding as a gold stud bump provides excellent contact for a gold wire.
(Id.). According to Micron, it would be advantageous to form bumps on a
wafer having advantages of gold thermosonic or thermocompression
bonding with greater throughput and lower material costs. (Id. at ¶ 8).
There are four independent claims on appeal, claims 1, 16, 30 and 75.
Claim 1 is directed to a bumped semiconductor device, claim 16 is a wafer,
claim 30 is a semiconductor device assembly and claim 75 is an electronic
system. Each of the independent claims requires a substrate having an active
surface and a back surface where the active surface has a plurality of bond
pads where at least one substantially homogeneous bump comprising a
nickel-containing material is directly bonded to a bond pad. The
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