| 摘要 |
Embodiments of the present invention provide staggered guard ring structures for stopping cracks from propagating during a dicing operation or by suffering mechanical stress after packaging. In one embodiment, a guard ring structure may comprise staggered metal bars, each of which extends into the ILD underneath it. In one embodiment, the extended portion of a metal bar may overlap a portion of another metal bar underneath it. In one embodiment, the bottom portion of a metal bar extends into the underlying substrate. In all embodiments of the invention, the metal-metal interfaces and the ILD-ILD interfaces do not lie on the same plane, effectively stopping cracks from propagating into the active circuit area through delaminated interfaces. |
