ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 17 -- United States Patent no. 12,417,993, issued on Sept. 16, was assigned to TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY LTD. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).
"Chip structure" was invented by Chien-Cheng Chen (Hsinchu County, Taiwan) and Pei-Haw Tsao (Tai-chung, Taiwan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A chip structure is provided. The chip structure includes a substrate. The chip structure includes an interconnect layer over the substrate. The chip structure includes a conductive pad over the interconnect layer. The chip structure includes a conductive bump over the conductive pad. The conductive bump has a first portion, a second portion, and a neck portion between the first portion ...