Wafer Assembly and Packaging

Steps before a chip becomes usable are:

1.   Wafer Dicing
2.   Die Attach
3.   Wire Bonding
4.   Encapsulation
5.   Branding

Wafer Dicing

This is the breaking down of good wafers into individual chips. Dyed chips are thrown away because they are no longer useful while the undyed ones are packaged.

Die Attach

This is the putting of die attach material such as silver filled epoxy or silver filled parts on the die pad by the use die attach equipments like die bonders using epoxy dispensing tools.

Wire Bonding

This is the provision of electrical connection between the silicon chip and the external leads of the semiconductor device using very fine bonding wires.

Encapsulation

This is the sealing of the package in a sealing furnace

Branding

This is the process of applying identification marks on the package.

Note that in the final testing of the chips two test are involved which are:

1.   Parametric Testing:  This checks if the device exhibits the correct voltage, current or power characteristics regardless of whether the unit is functional or not.
2.   Functional Testing:  This checks if the device is able to perform its basic operation.

Chips that fail these tests do not scale through.