Characteristic study of anisotropic-conductive film for chip-on-film packaging

Chip-on-film (COF) is a new technology after tape-automated bonding (TAB) and chip-on-glass (COG) in the interconnection of liquid crystal module (LCM). The thickness of the film, which is more flexible than TAB, can be as thin as 44 mum. It has pre-test capability, while COG does not have. It possesses great potential in many product fabrication applications. In this study, we used anisotropic-conductive film (ACF) as the adhesive to bind the desired IC chip and polyimide (PI) film. The electric path was formed by connecting the bump on the IC and the electrode on the PI film via the conductive particles in the ACF. In the COF bonding process experimental-design method was applied based on the parameters, such as bonding temperature, bonding pressure and bonding time. After reliability tests of (1) 60 degreesC/95%RH/500 h and (2) -20 to 70 degreesC/500 cycles, contact resistance was measured and used as the quality inspection parameter. Correlation between the contact resistance and the three parameters was established and optimal processing condition was obtained. The COF samples analyzed were fabricated accordingly. The contact resistance of the COF samples was measured at varying temperature using the four points test method. The result helped us to realize the relationship between the contact resistance and the operation temperature of the COF technology. This yielded important information for circuit design. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.