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In this investigation, Cu-Sn lead-free solder microbumps on 10-μm pads with a 20-μm pitch are designed and fabricated. The chip size is 5 × 5 mm with thousands of microbumps. A daisy-chain feature is adopted for the characterization and reliability assessment. After pattern trace formation, the microbump is fabricated on the trace by an electroplating technique. A suitable barrier/seed layer thickness is designed and applied to minimize the undercut due to wet etching but to still achieve good plating uniformity. With the current process, the undercut is less than 1 μm and the bump height variation is less than 10%. In addition, the shear test is adopted to characterize the bump strength, which exceeds the specification. Also, the Cu-Sn lead-free solder microbumped chip is bonded on an Si wafer using chip-to-wafer bonding technique. Furthermore, the microgap between the bonded chips is filled with a special underfill. The shear strength of the bonded chips without the underfill is measured and it exceeds the specification. The bonding and filling integrity is further evaluated by open/short measurement, scanning acoustic tomography analysis, and cross-section with scanning electron microscopy analysis. The stacked ICs are evaluated by reliability (thermal cycling) test (-55 to 125°C). Finally, ultrafine-pitch (5-μm pads on a 10-μm pitch) lead-free solder microbumping is explored. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years, there has been growing demand to increase the power density in power modules. Therefore, the thermal management of power modules has become more and more critical. In this paper, we show that conventional single-sided power module with wire-bond connection cannot achieve both good steady-state and transient thermal performance under high heat transfer coefficient conditions. The plate-bonded power module has been proposed to resolve this issue. However, the thick copper plate embedded in the power module induces large thermomechanical stress during temperature cycling, leading to poor reliability. To reduce the thermomechanical stress without significantly compromising the thermal performance, a trenched copper plate power module is designed and presented. A parametric study shows that the maximum von Mises stress and plastic strain in the solder layer can be reduced by 18.7%, and 67.8%, respectively, if the single piece of copper plate is replaced by a 3 × 3 trenched copper plate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In thermosonic wire bonding, a free air ball (FAB) created by electronic flame-off (EFO) is crucial to a reliable first bond. To reveal the mechanisms of FAB and ripple formation, the dynamic FAB formation process was monitored and analyzed with a high-speed camera and digital data acquisition system. FAB formation was found to occur in four stages: initiation, preheating, melting, and solidification. The FAB formation speed and model depend only on the EFO current. The FAB formation speed can be as high as 90.4 μm/ms at an EFO current of 60 mA. A minimum EFO time is required for FAB formation, which depends on the EFO current. A semiempirical model FAB=ηln[I(t - 0.5 tmin)]- c, was developed to describe the relationship between the FAB size and the EFO time at different EFO currents. The ripple formation mechanism was investigated by analyzing the solidification stage images. Transient droplet vibration caused by high-speed rolling-up and skin-forming solidification in the molten gold drop caused by a large temperature gradient are two major factors in ripple formation. This analysis is expected to be useful for understanding the FAB formation mechanism and optimizing the EFO parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focused on the feasibility of preparing Sn-Ag-In ternary solder bumps with small size by two-step electroplating. The interfacial reaction and shear strength between three different solders (Sn2.2Ag, Sn1.8Ag9.4In, and Sn1.6Ag21.7In) and Cu under bump metallization (UBM) were investigated. After the reflow for 10 min, η Cu6(Sn,In)5 and ε Cu3(Sn,In) intermetallic compounds (IMC) were formed at the interface near the solder matrix and Cu UBM, respectively. Indium addition lowered the reflow temperature and improved the interface between solder and IMCs. The mean shear strength of Sn1.8Ag9.4In solder bump was higher than that of Sn2.2Ag and Sn1.6Ag21.7In solder bumps. After long time reflow, the mean shear strength increased. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]