A new COG technique using low temperature solder bumps for LCD driver IC packaging applications

A new chip on glass (COG) technique using nip chip solder joining technology has been developed for excellent resolution and high quality liquid crystal display (LCD) panels. The flip chip solder joining technology has several advantages over the anoisotropic conductive film (ACF) bonding technology: finer pitch capability, better electrical performance, and easier reworkability. Conventional solders such as eutectic Pb-Sn and Pb-5Sn require high temperature processing which can lead to degradation of the liquid crystal or the color filter in LCD modules. Thus it is desirable to develop a low temperature process below 160degreesC using solders with low melting temperatures for this application. In our case, we used eutectic 58 wt%Bi-42 wt%Sn solder for this purpose. Using the eutectic Bi-Sn solder bumps of 50-80 mum pitch sizes, an ultrafine interconnection between the IC and glass substrate was successfully made at or below 160degreesC. The average contact resistance of the Bi-Sn solder joints was 19 mOmega per bump, which is much lower than the contact resistance of conventional ACF bonding technologies. The contact resistance of the underfilled Bi-Sn solder joints did not change during a hot humidity test. We demonstrate that the COG technique using low temperature solder joints can be applied to advanced LCDs that lead to require excellent quality, high resolution, and low power consumption.