Influence of Flux and Related Factors on Intermetallic Layer Growth within SAC305 Solder Joints

Flux contained in solder paste significantly affects the process of solder joint creation during reflow soldering, including the creation of an intermetallic layer (IML). This work investigates the dependence of intermetallic layer thickness on ROL0/ROL1 flux classification, glossy or matt solder mask, and OSP/HASL/ENIG soldering pad surface finish. Two original SAC305 solder pastes differing only in the used flux were chosen for the experiment. The influence of multiple reflows was also observed. The intermetallic layer thicknesses were obtained by the image analysis of micro-section images. The flux type proved to have a significant impact on the intermetallic layer thickness. The solder paste with ROL1 caused an increase in IML thickness by up to 40% in comparison to an identical paste with ROL0 flux. Furthermore, doubling the roughness of the solder mask has increased the resulting IML thickness by 37% at HASL surface finish and by an average of 22%.

Biocompatibility Study of a Commercial Printed Circuit Board for Biomedical Applications: Lab-on-PCB for Organotypic Retina Cultures

Printed circuit board (PCB) technology is well known, reliable, and low-cost, and its application to biomedicine, which implies the integration of microfluidics and electronics, has led to Lab-on-PCB. However, the biocompatibility of the involved materials has to be examined if they are in contact with biological elements. In this paper, the solder mask (PSR-2000 CD02G/CA-25 CD01, Taiyo Ink (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Suzhou, China) of a commercial PCB has been studied for retinal cultures. For this purpose, retinal explants have been cultured over this substrate, both on open and closed systems, with successful results. Cell viability data shows that the solder mask has no cytotoxic effect on the culture allowing the application of PCB as the substrate of customized microelectrode arrays (MEAs). Finally, a comparative study of the biocompatibility of the 3D printer Uniz zSG amber resin has also been carried out.

Design criteria for pad and stencil with high pick-and-Place yield

Purpose This study aims to focus on the passive components of System in Package SiP modules and discusses the geometric pad designs for 01005-sized passive components, the front end design of the hole size and shape of the stencil and the parameters of the stencil sidewall coating, to determine the optimum parameter combination. Design/methodology/approach This study plans and conducts experiments, where a L8(27) inner orthogonal array is built to consider the control factors, including a L4(23) outer orthogonal array to consider the noise factor, and the experimental data are analyzed by using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution multi-quality analysis method. Findings The results show that the optimum design parameter level combination is that the solder mask opening pad has no solder mask in the lower part of the component, the pad width is 1.1 times that of the component width, the pad length is 1.75 times that of the electrode tip length, the pad spacing is 5 mil, the stencil open area is 90% of the pad area, the stencil opening corner has a 3 mil chamfer angle, and the stencil sidewall is free of nano-coating. Originality/value The parameter design and multi-quality analysis method, as proposed in this study, can effectively develop the layout of passive components on a high-density SiP module substrate, to stabilize the process and increase the production yield.

Embedding of Ultrathin Chips in Highly Flexible, Photosensitive Solder Mask Resist

This work presents an embedding process for ultrathin silicon chips in mechanically flexible solder mask resist and their electrical contacting by inkjet printing. Photosensitive solder mask resist is applied by conformal spray coating onto epoxy bonded ultrathin chips with a daisy chain layout. The contact pads are opened by photolithography using UV direct light exposure. Circular and rectangular openings of 90 µm and 130 µm diameter, respectively, edge length are realized. Commercial inks containing nanoparticular silver and gold are inkjet printed to form conductive tracks between daisy chain structures. Different numbers of ink layers are applied. The track resistances are characterized by needle probing. Silver ink shows low resistances only for multiple layers and 90 µm openings, while gold ink exhibits low resistances in the single-digit Ω-range for minimum two printed layers.

Creep Behavior of Various Materials Within PBGA Packages Subjected to Thermal Cycling Loading

Electronic packages are frequently exposed to a thermal cycling environment in real life applications. Particularly, the plastic ball grid array (PBGA) is one of the most widely used electronic package, and consists of various component materials, e.g. solder joint, silicon die, die attachment adhesive, mold compound, solder mask, etc. All of these materials play a significant role on the reliability of the overall package. Failure under creep deformation is one of the significant failure mode for electronic packages. Hence, it is important to study their creep behavior and evolution under the thermal cycling environment. These changes must be evaluated in order to understand and predict their failure behavior due to creep damage in operation. In our previous study, evolution of mechanical properties of SAC305 solder joints in a PBGA package up to 250 thermal cycles was evaluated using the nanoindentation technique. In this work, nanoindentation technique was utilized to understand the evolution of creep behavior of the SAC305 solder joint, die attachment adhesive, silicon die, and solder mask material for various durations of thermal cycling. Test specimens were first prepared by cross sectioning a PBGA package to reveal the different materials, followed by surface polishing to facilitate SEM imaging and nanoindentation testing. After preparation, the package samples were thermally cycled from T = −40 to 125 °C in an environmental chamber. At various points in the cycling (e.g. after 0, 50, 100, 250 and 500 cycles), the package was taken out from the chamber, and nanoindentation was performed on above mentioned materials to obtain creep behavior at room temperature (25 °C). From the nanoindentation test data, it was found that creep deformation of SAC305 increased upto 500 cycles. Die attachment and solder mask materials showed initial decrease in creep deformation up to 250 cycles and then increased value at 500 cycles. As expected, the silicon die material does not show any significant change in creep deformation behavior upto 500 cycles.

Estimation of Solder Ball Collapse Height in Semiconductor Packaging Using Theoretical and Solid Modeling Techniques

Semiconductor packages using solder balls as interconnect to the printed circuit board (PCB) are very popular especially in mobile products like smart phones. Recent requirement to make the package much thinner is very challenging. The solder ball collapse height after the solder ball is reflowed on the package substrate metal pad would need to be tightly controlled and aligned with the required height to meet the target overall package thickness. Another challenge is that the package has to be developed in a short period of time. In this study, theoretical and solid modeling techniques were developed to estimate the solder ball collapse height and compared with actual evaluation results. With these, the solder ball collapse height could be quickly estimated to make the package design and development faster avoiding several trial evaluations on different combinations of solder ball size, substrate pad solder mask opening diameter and solder mask thickness. Based on the estimation results, using these techniques showed good agreement with actual solder ball height measurements and have now been successfully used in coming up with final package designs in a fast and cost-effective way.