1. A method, comprising:
forming a layer of conductive material above a substrate;
forming a masking layer above the layer of conductive material;
performing a first etching process on the layer of conductive material with the masking layer in place;
removing the masking layer; and
after removing the masking layer, performing an isotropic etching process on the layer of conductive material to thereby define a plurality of piercing bond structures positioned on the substrate.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
providing an integrated circuit die having a plurality of solder balls, each of which have a layer of oxide on an outer surface of the ball;
heating at least the solder balls; and
applying a force that causes each of the plurality of piercing bond structures to pierce one of the solder balls with the oxide layer formed thereon and thereby establish a conductive connection between the solder ball and the piercing bond structure.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the steps recited in claim 2 are performed in an ambient, oxygen-containing environment.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein heating at least the solder balls comprises heating at least the solder balls to a temperature that is above a melting point of a material of the solder balls.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein applying the force comprises applying a force ranging from 5-12 Kg for a duration ranging from 0.5-2 seconds.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the steps recited in claim 2 are performed without applying a flux to the plurality of solder balls.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first etching process is an anisotropic etching process.
8. The method of claim 3, wherein the substrate comprises a printed circuit board.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of piercing bond structures has a substantially triangular cross-sectional configuration.
10. A method, comprising:
providing an integrated circuit die having a plurality of solder balls, each of which have a layer of oxide on an outer surface of the ball;
performing a heating process to heat at least the solder balls; and
applying a force that causes each of a plurality of piercing bond structures on a substrate to pierce one of the solder balls and its associated oxide layer to thereby establish a conductive connection between the solder ball and the piercing bond structure.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the steps recited in claim 10 are performed in an ambient, oxygen-containing environment.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein performing the hearing process comprises heating at least the solder balls to a temperature that is above a melting point of a material of the solder balls.
13. The method of claim 10, wherein applying the force comprises applying a force ranging from 5-12 Kg for a duration ranging from 0.5-2 seconds.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein the steps recited in claim 10 are performed without applying a flux to the plurality of solder balls.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the substrate comprises a printed circuit board.
16. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of piercing bond structures has a substantially triangular cross-sectional configuration.
17. A device, comprising:
an integrated circuit die having a plurality of solder balls that are conductively coupled to bond pads on the die, each of the solder balls having a layer of oxide on an outer surface thereof; and
a substrate comprising a plurality of piercing bond structures, each of the piercing bond structures penetrating and extending at least partially into a corresponding solder ball to thereby establish a conductive connection between the solder ball and the piercing bond structure, the piercing bond structure penetrating the layer of oxide.
18. The device of claim 17, wherein the piercing bond structures have a non-flat end.
19. The device of claim 17, wherein each of the piercing bond structures comprises at least one anti-oxidation layer formed on an outer surface of the piercing bond structure.
20. The device of claim 19, wherein the at least one anti-oxidation layer comprises a plurality of layers of material.
21. The device of claim 20, wherein the plurality of layers comprises a layer comprising gold formed on an exposed surface of the piercing bond structure and a layer comprising nickel formed on the layer comprising gold.
22. The device of claim 17, wherein the plurality of piercing bond structures has a substantially triangular cross-sectional configuration.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An optical head for reading andor writing information fromon multiple types of storage media, including a first storage medium and a second storage medium, by irradiating a given one of the storage media with a laser beam,
the first and second storage media including a protective substrate with a thickness t1 and a protective substrate with a thickness t2 (where t1\u2260t2), respectively, the thicknesses t1 and t2 being the depth of the information storage layer of the storage media as measured from their surface irradiated with the laser beam,
the optical head comprising:
a light source that emits the laser beam;
a diffraction element that diffracts the laser beam to produce diffracted light of multiple orders;
an objective lens for converging, among the multiple orders of the diffracted light, an nth order (where n is an integer) one of the diffracted light of the multiple orders on the information storage layer of the first storage medium and an mth order (where m is an integer and m\u2260n) one of the diffracted light on the information storage layer of the second storage medium, respectively;
a condenser lens for condensing the laser beam that has been reflected from the first or second storage medium;
a photodetector that receives the condensed laser beam; and
a light shielding portion for preventing a portion of the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium and that includes its optical axis, from reaching the photodetector, the light shielding portion being arranged so as to reduce loss to be caused by cutting off the portion of the laser beam to a predetermined value or less.
2. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the largest inside diameter of the light shielding portion is less than 20% of the beam diameter of the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium.
3. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the light shielding portion is defined by providing, as light shielding area, a film that has a transmittance of roughly 0% with respect to the laser beam for an optical member that transmits the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium.
4. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the light shielding portion is defined by providing, as a light shielding area, a film that has a reflectance of roughly 0% with respect to the laser beam for an optical member that further reflects the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium.
5. The optical head of claim 3, wherein the film is deposited on the optical member by an evaporation process.
6. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the light shielding portion is defined by providing, as a light shielding area, a diffraction member that has a diffraction efficiency of roughly 0% with respect to the zero-order diffracted light of the laser beam for an optical member that transmits or reflects the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium.
7. The optical head of claim 2, wherein the light shielding portion has a substantially circular or substantially parallelogram shape.
8. The optical head of claim 2, wherein the light beam spot of the laser beam that has been formed on the photodetector after having been partially cut off by the light shielding portion has substantially the same shape as the photodetector itself.
9. The optical head of claim 3, wherein the optical member is a beam dividing element for use to generate a tracking error signal by splitting the laser beam that has been reflected from the first or second storage medium, and
wherein the light shielding portion is defined on the beam dividing element.
10. The optical head of claim 9, wherein the laser beam that has been incident on a predetermined area of the beam dividing element, including the light shielding portion, is not used to generate the tracking error signal.
11. The optical head of claim 3, wherein the optical member is a detector lens for use to generate a focus error signal by giving astigmatism to the laser beam that has been reflected from the first or second storage medium, and
wherein the light shielding portion is defined on the detector lens.
12. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the light shielding portion is arranged along an optical path of the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the second storage medium and is yet to reach the photodetector so as to be located off an optical path leading from the light source to the second storage medium.
13. The optical head of claim 1, wherein the light shielding portion is arranged away from the photodetector.
14. An optical head for reading andor writing information fromon one of at least three information storage layers of a storage medium by irradiating the storage medium with a laser beam,
the optical head comprising:
a light source that emits the laser beam;
an objective lens that converges the laser beam on one of the information storage layers of the storage medium;
a condenser lens for condensing the laser beam that has been reflected from the information storage layer of the storage medium;
a photodetector that receives the condensed laser beam; and
a light shielding portion for preventing a portion of the laser beam that has been reflected from the at least three information storage layers and that includes its optical axis, from reaching the photodetector, the light shielding portion being arranged so as to reduce the loss of the reflected light to be caused by cutting off the portion of the laser beam to a predetermined value or less.
15. An optical disc drive comprising:
an optical head,
a motor for rotating and driving an information storage medium, and
a control section for controlling the optical head and the motor,
wherein the optical head is as defined by claim 1.
16. A computer comprising:
the optical disc drive of claim 15;
an input section for entering information;
a computing section for making calculations based on the information that has been read by the optical disc drive andor the information that has been entered through the input section; and
an output section for outputting at least one of the information that has been read by the optical disc drive, the information that has been entered through the input section, and results of the calculations made by the computing section.
17. An optical disc player comprising:
the optical disc drive of claim 15, and
a decoder for converting an information signal, supplied from the optical disc drive, into image information.
18. An optical disc recorder comprising:
the optical disc drive of claim 15, and
an encoder for converting image information into an information signal to be written by the optical disc drive.
19. The optical head of claim 6, wherein the optical member is a beam dividing element for use to generate a tracking error signal by splitting the laser beam that has been reflected from the first or second storage medium, and
wherein the light shielding portion is defined on the beam dividing element.
20. The optical head of claim 6, wherein the optical member is a detector lens for use to generate a focus error signal by giving astigmatism to the laser beam that has been reflected from the first or second storage medium, and
wherein the light shielding portion is defined on the detector lens.