Mechanical properties of SMD interconnections on flexible and rigid substrates

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate on the mechanical properties of surface-mount device (SMD) interconnections made on flexible and rigid substrates. Design/methodology/approach – The durability of joints to shear strength was measured with tensile machine. Investigations were carried out for 0402- and 0603-sized ceramic passives and integrated circuits in SOIC-8, TSSOP-8, XSON3 and XSON6 packages. Three types of flexible substrates (Kapton, Mylar and Pyralux) and two types of rigid substrates (LTCC and alumina) were used. SMD components were mounted with SAC solder or electrically conductive adhesive. Contact pads were made of Ag-based polymer paste on flexible substrates and PdAg-based cermet paste on ceramics. The shear strength was measured for as-made and long-term thermally aged test structures. The average durability and standard deviation were compared for different combination of materials. Moreover, mechanical properties of interconnections made of polymer thick-film pastes or electrically/thermally conductive adhesives between ceramic chips and flexible/ceramic substrates were investigated. Findings – The mechanical properties of joints strongly depend on configuration of applied materials. Some of them exhibit high durability to shear strength, while other should not be recommended due to very weak connections. Additionally, long-term thermal ageing showed that exploitation of such connections at elevated temperature in some cases might increase their strength. However, for some materials, it leads to accelerated degradation of joints. Originality/value – This paper provides practical information about SMD interconnections made with standard materials (lead-free solder, electrically/thermally conductive adhesives) and proposed non-standard procedures, e.g. assembling of ceramic chips with low temperature cermet or polymer thick-film conductive pastes.