Advances in Packaging and Assembly Polymers

Abstract

The Packaging Revolution of the ’90s, powered by the perpetual drive for smaller‐faster‐cheaper products, is placing increasing demands on the electronic materials sector. Down‐sizing, without a cost penalty, requires new materials and processes. Electronic polymers are playing an increasingly vital rôle as area array, chip size components and packageless designs become mainstream technologies. Micro‐Ball Grid Arrays (micro‐BGA), Chip Scale Packages (CSP) and Chip‐on‐Board(COB) require new adhesives and encapsulants that enable the use of low‐cost, high density organic‐based wiring and interconnect structures. Concurrently, new, simplified processes are being developed in order to streamline high volume manufacturing. This paper discusses quick bonding film die attach adhesives, fast‐flow flip‐chip underfills, and a variety of liquid encapsulants as well as new conductive adhesives designed for flip‐chip and micro‐Package assembly. Process innovations include the new Printed Package concept and the appealing simple Polymer Dip Chip method of flip‐chip assembly without paste deposition. The intrinsic versatility and synergy afforded by new and emerging electronic polymers are helping the industry meet the seemingly paradoxical challenge of smaller‐faster‐cheaper.