Study on the Strip Warpage Issues Encountered in the Flip-Chip Process

Abstract

This study successfully established a strip warpage simulation model of the flip-chip process and investigated the effects of structural design and process (molding, post-mold curing, pretreatment, and ball mounting) on strip warpage. The errors between simulated and experimental values were found to be less than 8%. Taguchi analysis was employed to identify the key factors affecting strip warpage, which were discovered to be die thickness and substrate thickness, followed by mold compound thickness and molding temperature. Although a greater die thickness and mold compound thickness reduce the strip warpage, they also substantially increase the overall strip thickness. To overcome this problem, design criteria are proposed, with the neutral axis of the strip structure located on the bump. The results obtained using the criteria revealed that the strip warpage and overall strip thickness are effectively reduced. In summary, the proposed model can be used to evaluate the effect of structural design and process parameters on strip warpage and can provide strip design guidelines for reducing the amount of strip warpage and meeting the requirements for light, thin, and short chips on the production line. In addition, the proposed guidelines can accelerate the product development cycle and improve product quality with reduced development costs.