Abstract: An apparatus plates metal bumps of uniform height on one surface of a semiconductor wafer (32). A plating tank (12) contains the plating solution. The plating solution is filtered (16) and pumped (14) through an inlet (22) to an anode plate (24) within plating cell (20). The anode plate has a solid center area to block direct in-line passage of the plating solution, and concentric rings of openings closer to its perimeter to pass the plating solution. The distance between the inlet and the anode plate is adjustable with supports to create a uniform flow of the plating solution to the surface of the semiconductor wafer for uniform plating of the array of metal bumps (30). The plating cell contains an adjustable sidewall extension (26) to set the proper distance between the anode plate and the semiconductor wafer.

Abstract: A backside metalization scheme for semiconductor devices includes a vanadium layer disposed on the backside of a wafer and a silver layer disposed on the vanadium layer. An optional intermediate layer comprising either a mixture of vanadium and silver or nickel may be disposed between the vanadium layer and the silver layer. The vanadium layer exhibits excellent adhesion characteristics on the backside of wafers having a finish at least as fine as a 300 grit equivalency while the silver layer exhibits excellent solderability characteristics.