RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF SOLDER JOINT INTERCONNECTS OF BGA PACKAGE-MEGTRON SERIES UNDER POWER CYCLING
Abstract
Solder joint interconnects are the second level assembly in surface mount interconnection technology. Mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between package and substrate or PCB creates failure in solder joints such as excessive warpage, low-k dielectric cracking, solder mask cracking and bump cracking. Conventional accelerated thermal cycling tests are performed to evaluate the Solder Joint Reliability (SJR). But, in everyday application, the package is subjected to Power cycling. Power cycling is the phenomenon where the package experiences non-uniform temperature distribution in the package with the chip as an internal heat generating source when an electronic device is turned on and off several times. This induces thermal stresses and deforms the package. High frequency laminates offer better fatigue life when compared with the traditional FR-4 material. In addition to the fatigue life they also possess properties like good impedance control, low moisture absorption capacity and improved thermal management. In this study, maximum accumulated plastic work per cycle is used as a parameter to estimate the life of the package in number of cycles it takes for failure at the solder joint interconnects. The reliability of the solder joint interconnects of a BGA package on various Megtron series boards is assessed and compared with FR-4 board under power cycling.