Intel Achieves Lead-Free Flip Chip Connections in 45 nm Technology
Folks, Intel announced that they now produce lead-free flip chip solder joints in their 45 nm technology. You will recall that flip chip solder joints are exempt...
View ArticleMackie, Hisert and Low Publish "Solder in Chip Packaging Article"
Folks, My Indium colleagues Dr. Andy Mackie, Jim Hisert and Adrian Low published a nice overview article on Solder Use in Chip Packaging. The article covers topics such as...
View ArticleA Method to Attach Indium Interfaces over Large Surface Areas
In a past entry, I discussed the characteristic formation of surface oxides on indium and the various methods by which to remove these to achieve a soldered indium interface. A related property of...
View Article8 Myths About Solder
Please don’t be fooled by misconceptions like the following: 1) Lead is bad 2) Soldering is simple 3) Soldering is complex 4) Changing a Sn/Ag/Cu alloy by .1% makes a huge difference. 5) Semiconductor...
View ArticleHead-in-Pillow Defects 2: Supply Issues
Head-in-pillow defects caused by everything before the components go on-line can be grouped into Supply Issues. Some specific issues within this group are oxidation, hydroxidation and silver...
View ArticleCorrosion - Part 2, How It Affects Us
Corrosion leads to field failures. I could probably stop right there – that’s bad enough. To flesh that out a little more, corrosion can lower thermal and electrical conductivity, cause opens, cause...
View ArticleHigh Tech Thermal Packaging Production in India
Indium Will Support Your Advanced Thermal Materials manufactured in India Happenings...
View ArticleBump Dimensions and Wafer Paste
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View ArticleAlternative Uses
This is my main vehicle. It’s versitile, just like fluxes should be! p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN:...
View ArticleHalogen-Free and Head-in-Pillow
One of the primary concerns with halogen-free solder pastes and fluxes revolves around the wetting and coalescence. The reason that halogens (usually in the form of covalently bonded...
View ArticleSolder Spheres for a High Yield Process
Surprises are rarely a good thing in production. High quality spheres minimize those ‘surprises’ when building BGAs and...
View ArticleIssues with using Indium for Wafer Bumping
Lets talk about some issues… The first thing that I am worried about is...
View ArticleIndium Bonding and Indium Cold Welding
Image: periodictable.com In recent days, one of my fellow applications engineers, Jim Hisert posted a blog on his semiconductor website about indium bonding and indium cold welding. This...
View ArticleSurface Tension Affects Capillary Underfills
After discussing flux removal (which is usually a precursor to underfilling) it is only natural to discuss capillary underfilling. span...
View ArticleSolder Alloy Powder Misconceptions
For a change of pace, again, I have asked another Technical Support Engineer, Chris Nash, to comment about powder sizes. Chris is the Regional Technical Support Engineer for the...
View ArticleBuying a Mitsubishi Evo X
Have you ever had a hard time getting help with something? For the last year I’ve been searching...
View ArticleIndium and Flip Chip Bonding
Photo courtesy Optocap Au stud bumped flip chip attachment? Low temperature assembly requirements? Indium is your answer…br...
View ArticleWafer-Level Microsphere Bumping (Flux)
90um flux deposits on silicon (Follows this post) span style="font-size: 10pt;...
View ArticleMentos, Diet Coke, and Mixed Alloy Voiding
Most of you have probably seen videos of countless Mentos/Diet Coke experiments all over the internet. If you are one of the few who have not, this is a...
View ArticleFlux Residue Levels: Not as Simple as you Think
After you’ve reflowed solder in contact with a flux, you’re always left with a certain amount of flux residue. There are no clear industry guidelines on how you refer to the residue, and new...
View ArticleSolder Paste – Flux
The second main ingredient in solder paste is the flux (vehicle). Flux is a very complex group of chemicals/materials that must be able to do a number of things, some of which must happen...
View ArticleSolder Paste: Drying Out or Relaxing?
Had some very interesting conversations at the IWLPC show last week, as always: one discussion was with my good friend Jeff Schake of Dek. He knew I had done some work a few years ago on a...
View ArticleWafer and Substrate Bumping with Solder Paste (I)
This week’s topic is both wafer bumping and substrate bumping with solder paste, and the issue of powder size. I’ve recently been dealing with some issues from customers who are concerned with the...
View ArticleWafer and Substrate Bumping with Solder Paste (II)
… and we’re back on the question of “how small a solder powder particle do I need, to achieve a certain bump height or bump diameter”?. There are a lot of factors that control this, but after taking...
View ArticleEpoxy Flux Dipping for CSP and PoP Applications
This week a customer in Asia asked why one of our new epoxy fluxes was not allowing the package-on-package (PoP) device to be picked up from the dipping tray. Obviously, the vacuum nozzle must have...
View ArticlePackage-on-Package (PoP) Solder Paste
A quick trip to discuss roadmapping with one of the world’s top processor manufacturers, and a visit to discuss Pb-free power die-attach materials, left me with a few hours to spare at LAX. This time...
View ArticleSolder Paste and Flux Dip Depth: I
My friend and colleague Chris Nash and I were recently discussing some puzzling results for low dip height found during testing of package-on-package (PoP) materials. The findings will be of interest...
View ArticleBall-Attach Flux WS-446-NRD for Poor Quality OSP-wetting
While on a recent trip to Malaysia, I interviewed two colleagues regarding trends in semiconductor assembly. My previously-published interview with Sze-Pei Lim appears here.br...
View ArticleReflow of Copper Pillar Microbumps
Wafer bumping processes have evolved in the last 10 years. The semiconductor assembly industry has gone from bumping processes using solder paste printing (with all its concerns of voiding,...
View ArticleEffect of Package and Die Size on Dipping and Pick-up
While in South East Asia last summer, Indium’s technical team and I had a chance to discuss flip-chip dipping processes with a major equipment vendor. One of the topics was device (bumped package or...
View ArticleOne-Step OSP BGA Soldering Application
The ball-attach process can be considered a trivial step when creating an FCBGA or similar package, but the final soldering step can be rather complex. There are several variables that impact the...
View ArticleAchieving Uniform Solder Bondline Control Between Substrate and Baseplate in...
The next few posts come to us from my colleagues Karthik Vijay, Indium Corporation’s Technical Manager for Europe and Liam Mills of TT Electronics Power and Hybrid. They’ve done some exciting work...
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