Effects of Catalysts on the Adhesive Properties for Flip Chip Bonding

The application of flip chip technology has been growing with the trend of miniaturization of electronic packages, especially in mobile electronics. Currently, several types of adhesive are used for flip chip bonding and these adhesives require some special properties; they must be solvent-free and fast curing and must ensure joint reliability against thermal fatigue and humidity. In this study, imidazole and its derivatives were added as curing catalysts to epoxy resin and their effects on the adhesive properties were investigated. Non-isothermal DSC analyses showed that the curing temperatures and the heat of reaction were dependent primarily on the type of catalyst. Isothermal dielectric analyses showed that the curing time was dependent on the amount of catalysts added as well as their type. The die shear strength increased with the increase of catalyst content while the Tg decreased. From this study, imidazole catalysts with low molecular weight are expected to be beneficial for snap curing and high adhesion strength for flip chip bonding applications.