Technical Library | 2014-12-11 18:00:09.0
The growth of portable and wireless products is driving the miniaturization of packages resulting in the development of many types of thin form factor packages and cost effective assembly processes. Wire bonded packages using conventional copper lead frame have been used in industry for quite some time. However, the demand for consumer electronics is driving the need for flip chip interconnects as these packages shorten the signals, reduce inductance and improve functionality as compared to the wire bonded packages. The flip chip packages have solder bumps as interconnects instead of wire bonds and typically use an interposer or organic substrate instead of a metal lead frame (...) The paper provides a general overview of typical defects and failure modes seen in package assembly and reviews the efforts needed to understand new failure modes during package assembly. The root cause evaluations and lessons learned as the factory transitioned to thin form factor packages are shared
Technical Library | 2009-10-08 01:58:04.0
In the present study, we report novel ferroelectric-epoxy based polymer nanocomposites that have the potential to surpass conventional composites to produce thin film capacitors over large surface areas, having high capacitance density and low loss. Specifically, novel crack resistant and easy to handle Resin Coated Copper Capacitive (RC3) nanocomposites capable of providing bulk decoupling capacitance for a conventional power-power core, or for a three layer Voltage-Ground-Voltage type power core, is described.
Technical Library | 2016-09-15 17:10:40.0
This paper describes the purpose, methodology, and results to date of thermal endurance testing performed at the company. The intent of this thermal aging testing is to establish long term reliability data for printed wiring board (PWB) materials for use in applications that require 20+ years (100,000+ hours) of operational life under different thermal conditions. Underwriters Laboratory (UL) testing only addresses unclad laminate (resin and glass) and not a fabricated PWB that undergoes many processing steps, includes copper and plated through holes, and has a complex mechanical structure. UL testing is based on a 5000 hour expected operation life of the electronic product. Therefore, there is a need to determine the dielectric breakdown / degradation of the composite printed circuit board material and mechanical structure over time and temperature for mission critical applications.
Technical Library | 2021-04-08 00:30:49.0
As the electronic industry moves to lead-free assembly and finer-pitch circuits, widely used printed wiring board (PWB) finish, SnPb HASL, has been replaced with lead-free and coplanar PWB finishes such as OSP, ImAg, ENIG, and ImSn. While SnPb HASL offers excellent corrosion protection of the underlying copper due to its thick coating and inherent corrosion resistance, the lead-free board finishes provide reduced corrosion protection to the underlying copper due to their very thin coating. For ImAg, the coating material itself can also corrode in more aggressive environments. This is an issue for products deployed in environments with high levels of sulfur containing pollutants encountered in the current global market. In those corrosive environments, creep corrosion has been observed and led to product failures in very short service life (1-5 years). Creep corrosion failures within one year of product deployment have also been reported. This has prompted an industry-wide effort to understand creep corrosion
Technical Library | 2016-07-07 15:37:18.0
How susceptible are the metals used in modern electronics manufacturing to corrosion by common beverages? This is a question of interest, especially to manufacturers, retailers and to a certain extent end customers. In this study the dissolution of aluminum, copper, gold, iron, lead, nickel, SAC305 solder, silver, tin and zinc was examined. Individual foils of these materials were fully immersed in one of sixteen chosen beverages and heated for 3 days at 40°C. The resulting solutions were analyzed using ICP-OES. The data were examined in light of the known pH, conductivity and ionic contents of the beverages, determined in previous work. Conclusions about the relative susceptibility to corrosion of the various metals and the corrosive power of the different beverages are made.
Technical Library | 2023-01-10 20:15:42.0
Over the past years there has been consistent growth in the use of electroless nickel / immersion gold (ENIG) as a final finish. The finish is now frequently being used for PBGA, CSP, QFP and COB and more recently gathered considerable interest as a low cost under-bump metallization for flip chip bumping application. One of the largest users for this finish has been the telecommunication industry, were millions of square meters of PCBs with ENIG have been successfully used. The nickel layer offers advantages such as multiple soldering cycles and hand reworks without copper dissolution being a factor. The nickel also acts as a reinforcement to improve through-hole and blind micro via thermal integrity. In addition the nickel layer offers advantages such as co-planarity, Al-wire bondability and the use as contact surface for keypads or contact switching. Especially those pads, which are not covered by solder need a protective coating in corrosive environment – such as high humidity or pollutant gas.
Technical Library | 2023-08-04 15:27:30.0
A designed experiment evaluated the influence of several variables on appearance and strength of Pb-free solder joints. Components, with leads finished with nickel-palladium-gold (NiPdAu), were used from Texas Instruments (TI) and two other integrated circuit suppliers. Pb-free solder paste used was tin-silver-copper (SnAgCu) alloy. Variables were printed wiring board (PWB) pad size/stencil aperture (the pad finish was consistent; electrolysis Ni/immersion Au), reflow atmosphere, reflow temperature, Pd thickness in the NiPdAu finish, and thermal aging. Height of solder wetting to component lead sides was measured for both ceramic plate and PWB soldering. A third response was solder joint strength; a "lead pull" test determined the maximum force needed to pull the component lead from the PWB. This paper presents a statistical analysis of the designed experiment. Reflow atmosphere and pad size/stencil aperture have the greatest contribution to the height of lead side wetting. Reflow temperature, palladium thickness, and preconditioning had very little impact on side-wetting height. For lead pull, variance in the data was relatively small and the factors tested had little impact.
Technical Library | 2024-04-08 15:46:36.0
A designed experiment evaluated the influence of several variables on appearance and strength of Pb-free solder joints. Components, with leads finished with nickel-palladium-gold (NiPdAu), were used from Texas Instruments (TI) and two other integrated circuit suppliers. Pb-free solder paste used was tin-silver-copper (SnAgCu) alloy. Variables were printed wiring board (PWB) pad size/stencil aperture (the pad finish was consistent; electrolysis Ni/immersion Au), reflow atmosphere, reflow temperature, Pd thickness in the NiPdAu finish, and thermal aging. Height of solder wetting to component lead sides was measured for both ceramic plate and PWB soldering. A third response was solder joint strength; a "lead pull" test determined the maximum force needed to pull the component lead from the PWB. This paper presents a statistical analysis of the designed experiment. Reflow atmosphere and pad size/stencil aperture have the greatest contribution to the height of lead side wetting. Reflow temperature, palladium thickness, and preconditioning had very little impact on side-wetting height. For lead pull, variance in the data was relatively small and the factors tested had little impact.
Technical Library | 2019-01-09 19:19:52.0
The electronics industry has widely adopted Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder alloys for lead-free reflow soldering applications and tin-copper based alloys for wave soldering applications. In automated soldering or rework operations, users may work with Sn-Ag-Cu or Sn-Cu based alloys. One of the challenges with these types of lead-free alloys for automated / hand soldering operations, is that the life of the soldering iron tips will shorten drastically using lead-free solders with an increased cost of soldering iron tool maintenance/ tip replacement. Development was done on a new lead-free low silver solder rework alloy (Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu-0.04Co) in comparison with a number of alternative lead-free alloys including Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-0.7Cu and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and tin-lead Sn40Pb solder in soldering evaluations.
Technical Library | 2023-03-16 18:51:43.0
Conductive anodic filament (CAF) formation was first reported in 1976.1 This electrochemical failure mode of electronic substrates involves the growth of a copper containing filament subsurface along the epoxy-glass interface, from anode to cathode. Despite the projected lifetime reduction due to CAF, field failures were not identified in the 1980s. Recently, however, field failures of critical equipment have been reported.2 A thorough understanding of the nature of CAF is needed in order to prevent this catastrophic failure from affecting electronic assemblies in the future. Such an understanding requires a comprehensive evaluation of the factors that enhance CAF formation. These factors can be grouped into two types: (1) internal variables and (2) external influences. Internal variables include the composition of the circuit board material, and the conductor metallization and configuration (i.e. via to via, via to surface conductor or surface conductors to surface conductors). External influences can be due to (1) production and (2) storage and use. During production, the flux or hot air solder leveling (HASL) fluid choice, number and severity of temperature cycles, and the method of cleaning may influence CAF resistance. During storage and use, the principal concern is moisture uptake resulting from the ambient humidity. This paper will report on the relationship between these various factors and the formation of CAF. Specifically, we will explore the influences of printed wiring board (PWB) substrate choice as well as the influence of the soldering flux and HASL fluid choices. Due to the ever-increasing circuit density of electronic assemblies, CAF field failures are expected to increase unless careful attention is focused on material and processing choices.
