Patent 7256115 was granted and assigned to Micron Technology on August, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method and apparatus are disclosed for forming a tapered contact structure over a contact pad. The tapered contact structure may be used to securely anchor an overlying solder bump or solder ball. Additionally, the tapered contact structure allows the use of either larger contact pads or, alternately, allows a greater density of contact pads to be achieved on an integrated circuit substrate.