Cyanate ester resin and its blends with epoxy resin demonstrate a lower viscosity build up when filled with thermally treated silica fillers than with untreated silica fillers. The reduced viscosity build up resulting from the use of the thermally treated materials results in faster capillary flow rates by a factor of 2 to 5 with respect to untreated silica particles. Surface properties of the filler materials are used to interpret the viscosity and flow rate data and guide design of filler surface properties. The flow rate performance improvement contributes to design of new capillary underfill materials for electronic materials applications.

The compression creep properties were evaluated for the Pb-free solders 95.5Sn-4.3Ag-0.2Cu (wt.%), 95.5Sn-3.9Ag-0.6Cu, and 95.5Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu to determine the effects of small composition differences on time-dependent deformation. The test temperatures were -25°C, 25°C, 75°C, 125°C, and 160°C. The nominal applied stresses were in the range of 2 – 45 MPa. Samples were tested in the as-fabricated condition as well as post-aged at 125°C for 24 hours. Negative creep was recorded for all three alloy compositions. However, the extent of this phenomenon was sensitive to alloy composition and the aging treatment. Creep deformation resulted in the formation of coarsened-particle boundaries within the eutectic regions of the microstructure. The boundaries were comprised of Cu6Sn5 and, to a lesser extent, Ag3Sn particles. The minimum creep rate kinetics were evaluated for these solders. The sinh term exponent, n, was 4 – 6 for the Sn-Ag-0.2Cu and Sn-Ag-0.6Cu solders and 1 – 2 for the Sn-Ag-0.7Cu alloy. The apparent activation energy (ΔH) values were in the range of 30 – 70 kJ/mol for all alloys, indicating that a short-circuit or fast-diffusion mechanism controlled creep deformation. The aging treatment did not consistently alter the rate kinetics parameters amongst the alloys. Separating the minimum creep rate data into the low and high temperature regimes, [-25°C, 75°C] and [75°C, 160°C], respectively, showed that bulk diffusion contributed to creep in the higher temperature regime. The ΔH values for the low temperature regime, which indicated that creep was dominated by a fast-diffusion mechanism, were sensitive to solder composition.

Recently, it was reported that adding Zn to solder was an effective way for reducing the formation of both Cu3Sn and Cu6Sn5 and inhibiting Kirkendall voids formation. The objective of this study is to investigate this Zn effect in detail. Three Sn-xZn solders (x = 0.5, 0.7, and 2 wt. %) were reacted with Cu substrates at 250°J for 2-10 mins. A slight variation in the Zn concentration changed the reaction product formed at the interface. When the Zn concentration was low (x = 0.5 wt. %), the reaction product was Cu6Sn5. At high Zn concentration (x = 2 wt. %), the reaction product became Cu5Zn8. When Zn concentration was in-between (x = 0.7 wt. %), Cu6Sn5 and CuZn co-existed. The above findings are explained using the Cu–Sn–Zn phase diagram. The implication is that the type of compound forms at the interface can be controlled by adjusting the Zn concentration of the Sn-based solders.

This paper reports on the measurement of elastic modulus for some electronic thin film materials used in electronic interconnects by a magnetostrictive sensor. Thin film materials of Au, Sn, In and Au-rich lead free solder (AuSn) were sputter deposited onto well defined strips of Metglas™. This material possesses magnetostrictive properties whereby it deforms when subjected by a magnetic field and generates a magnetic field when deformed. The MetglasTM strip is driven to resonance via a modulated magnetic field generated by a coil. The elastic modulus of the above materials was determined by measuring the resonant frequency of the sensors before and after film deposition and using the frequency shift, two analytical approaches were employed to extract values. The as sputtered films were examined by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Election Microscope (SEM) to characterize their microstructures. The elastic modulus of Au films was determined by employing two mathematical methodologies that resulted in values of 71.2GPa and 75.9GPa, which exhibit less than 5% divergence. Errors in the different measuring methodologies are discussed. Moreover, elastic modulus values of solder materials of AuSn (80/20 wt%), tin and indium films, which were also measured in their as deposited forms, will be discussed. This method represents a potentially new, non-destructive method to determine critical material properties of as deposited materials.

This work investigates the factors that affect the mechanical properties of Cu/electroless Ni-P/Sn-3.5Ag solder joints. For the investigation, solder joints were tensile tested after solid-state aging at different temperatures for various durations. Several factors, such as the growth of interfacial compounds (IFCs), Ni3Sn4 morphology, the accumulation of spalled Ni3Sn4 intermetallic particles at the solder/Ni3Sn4 interface, and the formation of Kirkendall voids at the Ni3P/Cu interface, are found to deteriorate the mechanical properties of the joints. Among all these factors, the formation of a layer of Kirkendall voids at the Ni3P/Cu interface, which is a result of Cu diffusion from the interface, causes the most severe decrease in tensile strength with a brittle fracture at the Ni3P/Cu interface. This layer of Kirkendall voids remains the main cause of brittle failure even after the transformation of the Ni3P layer into a Ni-Sn-P layer.

Current microelectronic devices and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) require that packaging costs be reduced with more enhanced device performance. In addition, the packaging materials are often exposed to harsh environments, for which their performance is drastically degraded. Importantly, such devices become lighter and smaller, precluding the use of conventional packaging materials and schemes. Given that, surface coatings can provide an alternative solution for some of the aforementioned issues. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a good candidate material in many encapsulating applications but its surface must be effectively protected due to its poor surface properties. In this study, the PDMS surface is coated with the parylene C film through a vapor-phase deposition. Proper surface modification of PDMS is then essential to generate desirable interfacial adhesion and performance between the parylene C and the PDMS. Effects of plasma treatment were examined in this study to evaluate their effectiveness on the surface modification of the PDMS. In order to explore mechanical performances of the bilayer coatings, dynamic nanoindentation and feedback-control nanoindentation testings were employed. In addition, extensive surface characterizations are performed with atomic force microscope (AFM) and optical microscope (OM).

Gold-tin braze is the preferred material for attaching high-precision MEMS inertial sensors within hermetic ceramic packages. The bonds can be made at relatively low temperatures, are mechanically robust, and outgas at very low rates in vacuum sealed packages. There is one significant limitation to Au-Sn bonds, however. The thermal expansion coefficients of MEMS die and ceramic packages are not perfectly matched and temperature gradients occur when the assembly is cooled after brazing. As a result, there is considerable residual stress in the bonded assembly, which is accommodated to some extent by distortion of the sensor die. Over time, as these stresses relax, the distortion of the die changes, which causes the spacing between elements of the integral MEMS sensor to change as well. An important element of sensor-package design is insuring that stress relaxation effects do not cause the instrument to drift beyond its performance specification limits over a typical lifetime of 20 years.

Even though Au-Sn has been used for decades to attach silicon chips to ceramic substrates, there is little data available, particularly at low temperatures. An oven, with a specially designed window, allowed in-situ measurements to be made as a function of temperature, joint thickness and load stress. Additionally, a MEMS device brazed to a package with Au-Sn has been measured interferometrically over time to quantify die distortion in a packaged application.

The mechanical properties of thermally-aged and electric current-stressed eutectic lead (Sn-37Pb) and lead-free (Sn-3.5Ag) solder joints with electroless Ni-P metallization were investigated using tensile testing. Multi-layered test samples, electroless Ni-P/solder/electroless Ni-P, having two electroless Ni-P/solder interfaces were prepared. Tensile testing results showed that for both types of solder, high density electric current causes the brittle failure of solder joint. The eutectic lead solder joint was found to be more prone to current induced brittle failure compared to the lead-free solder joint. In the eutectic lead solder joint, brittle failure always occurred at the cathode side electroless Ni-P/Sn-37Pb interface (where electrons flowed from Ni-P to solder), whereas no such polarity effect was observed in the case of lead-free solder joint.

A mixture system of MO-SiO2 (M: Ca, Sr, Ba) glass and Al2O3 crystalline powder has been investigated as a substrate material for low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC). This type of glass-ceramic mixture is known to be crystallized during the sintering process. We found that the adhesion strength of external electrode was strongly related with sintering condition. Crystallization behavior was monitored by means of powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The microstructure of sintered body after electroless plating was examined by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). It was observed that the degree of crystallization was strongly affected by sintering condition. We focused ourselves on elucidating the relationship between the degree of crystallization and the adhesion strength of external electrode that was made by means of electroless plating.

Tin-lead solder alloys are widely used in the electronic industry. With the recognition of toxicity of lead, however, electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) have been considered as one of the most promising alternatives of tin-lead solder. While silver is the most widely used conductive fillers for ECA, silver migration has been the major concern for the high power and fine pitch applications. In this paper, a novel approach of using self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) passivation has been introduced to control the silver migration in nano-Ag ECAs. The protection of silver nano particles with SAMs reduced the silver migration dramatically and no migration was observed upon application of high voltages (up to 500 V) due to the formation of surface chelating compounds between the SAM and nano silver fillers. Unlike other migration control approaches which sacrifice electrical performance, the SAM passivated nano Ag fillers also enhanced the electrical conductivity and current carrying capability of adhesive joints significantly due to the improved interfacial properties and high current density of those molecular monolayers. The joint resistance of the SAM incorporated nano-Ag conductive adhesive could be achieved as low as 10−5 Ohm (the contact area is 100 ×100 μm2) and the maximum allowable current was higher than 3500 mA. As such, a fine pitch, high performance, non-migration and high reliability adhesives are developed for potential solder replacement in high voltage, high power device applications.

Thermal interface materials (TIMs) are used to dissipate thermal energy from a heat-generating device to a heat sink via conduction. The growing power density of the electronic device demands next-generation high thermal conductivity and/or low thermal resistance TIMs. This paper discusses the current state-of-art TIM solutions, particularly fusible particles for improved thermal conductivity. The paper will address the benefits and limitations of this approach, and describe a system with unique filler morphology. Thermal resistance and diffusivity/conductivity characterization techniques are also discussed.

Spalling of intermetallic compounds in a massive scale has been reported in the literature for several solder/substrate systems, including SnAgCu soldered on Ni substrate, SnZn on Cu, high-Pb PbSn on Cu, and high-Pb PbSn on Ni. In this work, a common mechanism based on thermodynamic arguments is proposed to explain this rather peculiar phenomenon that occurs across several systems. According to this mechanism, two necessary conditions must be met. This first is that the most reactive element must be present in a limited amount, and the second is that the soldering reaction must be very sensitive to the concentration of this element. With the growth of intermetallic, more and more of the most reactive elements are extracted out of the solder and incorporated into intermetallic. As the concentration of this element decreases, the local equilibrium phase at the interface changes. This changing of the equilibrium phases caused the non-equilibrium phase to spall.

Very high density multi-chip modules are being manufactured by tiling an alumina substrate with IC chips and passive components, laminating a film of Kapton over them, laser drilling vias to their I/O pads, and interconnecting them with photo patterned, copper metallization. Additional layers of components and interconnects are added on top of the base layer, as needed, to allow greater integration of large circuits. Current products are typically two layers of chips and seven layers of interconnect. As higher power applications have emerged and the power density of IC chips has increased, thermal management has become a significant factor impacting module design. We have been conducting a thermal modeling effort to map the design space for this technology. Our principal objective is to define and evaluate low thermal impedance (heat removal) configurations for a given chip set. A second objective is to determine what gains in module performance might be realized by improvements in material properties or changes in the relative thicknesses of dielectric and metal layers.

Electromigration (EM) and stress-induced voiding (SIV) in Cu and Cu alloys thin films were studied separately. The characterization of EM was evaluated in a modified interconnect structure where the effect of current density can be observed in the absence of stress disturbance. SIV, on the other hand, is examined in detail by applying a uniform stress to Cu films without electric current. Results of EM tests clearly showed that void and hillock formations were concentrated mainly in the region with high current density gradient without stress disturbance. SIV test performed under the high stress of 1GPa showed that voids were observed to form at grain boundaries and grain boundary triple junctions. Under the high stress, SIV is shown to be generated in the absence of stress gradient. Also, the effect of alloying to EM and SIV was investigated in detail.

In this study silicon wafers were bonded using Al/Ni reactive multilayer foils as local heat sources for melting solder layers. Exothermic reactions in Al/Ni reactive multilayer foils were investigated by XRD and DSC. XRD measurements showed that dominant product after exothermic reaction was ordered B2 AlNi compound. The heat of reaction was calculated to be -57.9 KJ/mol by DSC. With Al/Ni reactive multilayer foil, localized heating can be achieved during bonding process. Both experimental measurements and numerical simulation showed that the heat exposure to the wafers was highly limited and localized. Moreover, leakage test showed that this bonding approach possessed a good hermeticity.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been proposed for applications in microelectronic applications, especially for electrical interconnects, thermal management, and nanodevices, due to their excellent electrical, thermal, and mechanical properties. In this paper, we reported a simple process to achieve simultaneous CNT growth and opening of the CNT ends, while keeping alignment of the original CNT films/arrays. The addition of relatively low reactivity oxidizing agents (water) into the reaction furnace enables the feasibility. We proposed using novel CNT transfer technology, enabled by open-ended CNTs, to circumvent the high carbon nanotube (CNT) growth temperature and poor adhesion with the substrates that currently plague CNT implementation. The process is featured with separation of high-temperature CNT growth and low-temperature CNT device assembly. Field emission testing of the as-assembled CNT devices is in a good agreement with the Fowler-Nordheim (FN) equation, with a field enhancement factor of 4540.

MicroElectroMechanical System (MEMS) devices often require low-temperature, fluxless soldering techniques due to their high temperature sensitivity and performance requirements of the components. While seeking the development of a soldering technology using pure indium, the major focus of this study is to assess the thermodynamics and kinetics of indium oxidation at various solder reflow environments that will ultimately provide a processing window for solder reflow and surface oxide cleaning. With a glove box employed to generate reducing environments, oxygen, moisture, and hydrogen contents were varied to examine their effects on oxidation and reduction behavior of indium. We also explored oxidation mechanisms at different regimes of temperature and time. In particular, electron transport from indium to indium oxide is shown to be the rate controlling mechanism under specific oxidizing conditions. For accurate thickness measurements, a spectroscopic ellipsometer was employed. In addition, the effect of indium oxidation on solder joint reliability was observed via wetting angle and interfacial shear strength measurements.

A novel preplated leadframe (PPF), i.e. Sn-PPF, is developed by electrodepositing a 3∼4nm thick Sn layer between the Cu base leadframe and the Ni plating. The nano-thick intermetallic compound (IMC) layer forms automatically through interdiffusion and reaction between Cu, Ni and Sn. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) observation reveals crystallography relationship between the IMC and Cu base. A drastic reduction of Cu out-diffusion is confirmed by an EDX based oxidation test carried, indicating a significant enhancement in the protection of the leadframe against oxidation and corrosion attack. The Cu diffusion coefficients in the IMC layer were estimated to be about at 250°C and m2/s at 300°C. Results of the wire pull test, the solderability test and the bending test exhibit Sn-PPF's quality with a Ni layer less than 200nm satisfying industrial requirements.

Microelectronic solder joints are exposed to aggressive thermo-mechanical cycling (TMC) during service, resulting in strain localization near solder / bond-pad interfaces, which eventually leads to low-cycle fatigue (LCF) failure of the joint. In order to mitigate these strain concentrations and thereby improve LCF life, a ‘smart solder’ reinforced with a martensitic NiTi based shape memory alloy (SMA) is being developed. This paper presents an overview of processing, characterization and modeling of these composite solders, and articulates the role of NiTi particles on strain evolution in composite solders. Based on finite element modeling and experiments on model single fiber composites, it is shown that NiTi pariculate reinforcements can reduce inelastic strain levels in the solder via shape recovery associated with the B19′→B2 transformation. In situ TMC studies in the SEM, in conjunction with strain analysis via digital image correlation, show evidence of reverse deformation in the solder commensurate with the NiTi phase transformation, demonstrating the conceptual viability of the smart solder approach. Details of processing and joint formation, and the resultant microstructures of smart solder are discussed. Finally, results of TMC experiments on monolithic solder and NiTi/solder composite joints are reported, highlighting the beneficial effect of shape-memory transformation in reducing inelastic strain range, and hence enhancing the LCF life, of solders.

This paper proposes a novel coating method combining supercritical fluid technology and electroless plating in a hybrid technique. The electroless plating reactions are carried out in an emulsion of supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO2) and an electroless plating solution with surfactants. The Ni-P film obtained by this proposed technique was a uniform and conformal film without the pinholes and nodules. The Ni-P film fabricated by our technique was smoother and more uniform than the substrate after pretreatment and the conventional electroless plating.