Vertical chip interposer and method of making a chip assembly containing the vertical chip interposer

1. A chip assembly structure, comprising:

a multi-grooved interposer comprising an interposer substrate containing multiple parallel grooves laterally extending along a first direction and laterally spaced among one another along a second direction, and multiple conductive strips, wherein the multiple parallel grooves are recessed from front side surfaces of the multi-grooved interposer in a third direction toward a back side surface of the multi-grooved interposer, the multiple conductive strips continuously extend across recessed surfaces in the multiple parallel grooves and the front side surfaces along the second direction with an undulating surface profile to provide electrically conductive paths across the multiple parallel grooves, and each of the multiple parallel grooves is configured to receive an edge of a respective semiconductor chip; and

a plurality of semiconductor chips inserted partially into a respective one of the multiple parallel grooves,

wherein:

each of the plurality of semiconductor chips includes a major surface on which a respective set of conductive pads is located;

each of the plurality of semiconductor chips is in electrical contact with the multiple conductive strips through direct physical contact between the respective set of conductive pads and respective portions of the multiple conductive strips; and

each set of conductive pads is located in a row on the major surface of a respective semiconductor chip with an edge offset distance from a first edge of the major surface of the respective semiconductor chip that is inserted into the one of the multiple parallel grooves; and

further comprising an additional multi-grooved interposer located parallel to the multi-grooved interposer and comprising additional multiple parallel grooves laterally extending along the first direction and laterally spaced among one another along the second direction, wherein the additional multiple parallel grooves are recessed from front side surfaces of the additional multi-grooved interposer in an opposite direction of the third direction toward a back side surface of the additional multi-grooved interposer, wherein additional multiple conductive strips continuously extend across recessed surfaces in the additional multiple parallel grooves and the front side surfaces of the additional multi-grooved interposer along the second direction with an undulating surface profile to provide electrically conductive paths across the additional multiple parallel grooves, wherein each of the plurality of semiconductor chips is inserted partially into a respective one of the additional multiple parallel grooves.

2. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein each of the multiple conductive strips has a respective uniform width in the first direction, and the respective uniform width is invariant along the second direction.

3. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein, for each pair of a groove and a semiconductor chip partly inserted therein, a height of the semiconductor chip is substantially the same as a width of the groove along the second direction.

4. The chip assembly structure of claim 3 , wherein:

the multiple conductive strips and each set of conductive pads have a same periodicity along the first direction; and

each set of conductive pads is located in the row with a same offset distance from the first edge of the major surface of the respective semiconductor chip.

5. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein the multi-grooved interposer comprises:

a semiconductor material layer having a major surface that is parallel to the first direction and the second direction;

a plurality of semiconductor devices located on the major surface of the semiconductor material layer; and

an insulating material layer supporting the multiple conductive strips in a surface portion thereof.

6. The chip assembly structure of claim 5 , wherein at least two of the plurality of semiconductor chips comprise monolithic three-dimensional NAND memory arrays and wherein the plurality of semiconductor devices comprise field effect transistors which are part of a peripheral circuit for controlling operation of the monolithic three-dimensional NAND memory arrays.

7. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein:

each of the plurality of semiconductor chips is in electrical contact with the additional multiple conductive strips through direct physical contact between a respective additional set of conductive pads and respective portions of the additional multiple conductive strips; and

the multi-grooved interposer and the additional multi-grooved interposer have a same maximum dimension along the first direction, and have another same maximum dimension along the second direction.

8. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein a semiconductor chip among the plurality of semiconductor chips includes a respective set of conductive pads on a front side surface of thereof, and includes an additional set of conductive pads on a back side surface thereof, wherein the additional set of contact pads contacts the multiple conductive strips.

9. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein:

the front side surfaces of the multi-grooved interposer comprise insulating surfaces;

the multiple conductive strips comprise metal strips; and

each set of conductive pads of the plurality of semiconductor chips comprises a set of metal pads.

10. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein:

at least one of the plurality of semiconductor chips comprises a memory chip including an array of memory cells; and

at least another of the plurality of semiconductor chips comprises at least one of a sensor chip or a logic chip including peripheral semiconductor devices that control read operations and write operations of the array of memory cells.

11. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein at least two of the plurality of semiconductor chips comprise monolithic three-dimensional NAND memory arrays which are configured to transmit and receive electrical signals therebetween through the multiple conductive strips.

12. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of semiconductor chips includes a respective sidewall that extends from a first edge of a major surface of a respective semiconductor chip to a second edge of the major surface of the respective semiconductor chip that is parallel to the first edge, and wherein the respective sidewall is recessed entirely within a respective one of the multiple parallel grooves upon partial insertion of the respective semiconductor chip into the respective one of the multiple parallel grooves.

13. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein each set of the conductive pads does not contact any edges of the major surface of the respective semiconductor chip.

14. The chip assembly structure of claim 13 , wherein each set of the conductive pads is offset from a recessed surface of a respective parallel groove of the multiple parallel grooves into which the first edge of the respective semiconductor chip is inserted.

15. The chip assembly structure of claim 14 , wherein the major surface comprises a surface having at least 50% of the area of the largest surface of the respective semiconductor chip.

16. The chip assembly structure of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of semiconductor chips is inserted partially into only the respective one of the multiple parallel grooves of the multi-grooved interposer, and is not inserted into any other of the multiple parallel grooves of the multi-grooved interposer.