Polymer molecular behaviors at buried polymer/metal and polymer/polymer interfaces and their relations to adhesion in packaging

Packaging materials are widely used in modern microelectronics. The interfacial structures of packaging materials determine the adhesion properties of these materials. Weak adhesion or delamination at interfaces involving packaging materials can lead to failure of microelectronic devices. Therefore, it is important to investigate the molecular structures of such interfaces. However, it is difficult to study molecular structures of buried interfaces due to the lack of appropriate analytical techniques. Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy has recently been used to probe buried solid/solid interfaces to understand molecular structures and behaviors such as the presence, coverage, ordering, orientation, and diffusion of functional groups at buried interfaces and their relations to adhesion in situ in real time. In this review, we describe our recent progress in the development of nondestructive methodology to examine buried polymer/metal interfaces and summarize how the developed methodology has been used to elucidate adhesion mechanisms at buried polymer/metal interfaces using SFG. We also elucidated the molecular interactions between polymers and various model and commercial epoxy materials, and the correlations between such interactions and the interfacial adhesion, providing in-depth understanding on the adhesion mechanisms of polymer adhesives.