AN INVESTIGATION OF MOISTURE-INDUCED INTERFACIAL DELAMINATION IN PLASTIC IC PACKAGE DURING SOLDER REFLOW

In this study, the moisture induced delamination behavior of a plastic ball grid array package under the solder reflow process was investigated by the fmite element analysis. The entire moisture history of the PBGA package was simulated for preconditioning at moisture sensitivity level 1 and the subsequent exposure to a soldering reflow. A fracture mechanics based analysis was used to investigate the combined effects of temperature, moisture and vapor pressure on the delamination behavior at the die/molding compound and die/die attach interfaces during solder reflow. For determining the total strain energy release rate and total stress intensity factor under a multi physics environment like reflow, researchers commonly used the principle of superposition to combine the results from individual thermal stress, hygroscopic stress and vapor pressure induced stress analyses. In this study, a new method was proposed to obtain the total strain energy release rate and total stress intensity factor under the multi-physics environment in a single fracture analysis instead of three. Two different methods-virtual crack closure technique (VCCT) and crack tip opening displacement method (CTOD) were employed and compared in studying the variation of strain energy release rates during lead-free solder reflow. The relationship between the strain energy release rate and crack length was also obtained. The developments of the stress intensity factors due to individual effect of thermal mismatch, hygroscopic swelling and vapor pressure were calculated. The mode mixity was also determined under different temperatures and crack length.