FBGA User’s Guide
68
Version 4.2, November 1, 2002
Reliability Evaluation of Chip Scale Packages
RELIABILITY EVALUATION OF CHIP SCALE PACKAGES
Ranjit Gannamani, Viswanath Valluri, Sidharth, and MeiLu Zhang
Advanced Micro Devices
Sunnyvale, California
ABSTRACT
This paper evaluates various Chip Scale Packages (CSP's)
with respect to board level reliability under accelerated
temperature cycling stress tests. The solder joint reliability
of three different types (based on substrate material) of Fine
Pitch Ball Grid Array (FBGA) packages and the
MicroBGA package is compared. The results are analyzed
using Weibull data analysis and extrapolated to low
cumulative percentage fails. The effect of package and
board design parameters such as solder ball size and board
thickness is also presented.
Key words: CSP, BGA, FBGA, solder joints, reliability.
INTRODUCTION
The goal of smaller and portable electronic products is
driving the development of CSPs. CSPs are close to the die
size and are much smaller than conventional packages. In
8Mb density Flash memory for example, a TSOP48 (Thin
Small Outline Package) measures about 18.4mm x 12mm
whereas a comparable CSP (FBGA) would measure only
6mm x 9mm.
Often, different CSPs offer similar reliability at the
component or package level. Once they are mounted on
boards, their ‘second level’ or ‘board level’ reliability could
however be very different, and is based on the unique
material set and construction of each package type. This
study was undertaken to evaluate (i) the board level
reliability of some CSPs of different construction, and (ii)
the effect of package and board design parameters such as
solder ball size and board thickness.
PACKAGES EVALUATED
The following packages were evaluated: (i) FBGA with
Polyimide (PI) tape substrate, or FBGA-PI, (ii) FBGA with
BT (Bismaleimide Triazine) substrate, or FBGA-BT (BT is
the rigid epoxy glass laminate used in the conventional
plastic ball grid arrays), (iii) FBGA with ceramic substrate,
or FBGA-Cer, and (iv) MicroBGA. Each package has a
different material set and structural construction.
Figure 1, Figure 2 and Table 1 illustrate the key differences
between the various FBGAs. The FBGA-PI uses a thin
0.08mm PI tape substrate, while the FBGA-BT uses a
relatively thick 0.36mm BT substrate. Both packages
conform to the same overall package height of
≤
1.2mm,
which is the maximum package body height specified in the
JEDEC FBGA specification. Consequently, the FBGA-BT
uses 0.3mm solder balls while the FBGA-PI uses 0.4mm
solder balls. The differences between the physical
dimensions of the FBGA-Cer and FBGA-BT are minimal.
Figure 1. Cross-section of FBGA-PI
Figure 2. Cross-section of FBGA-BT
Table 1. Differences in FBGA construction
The basic construction of these FBGA packages is to some
extent similar to that of conventional ball grid arrays. The
MicroBGA (Figure 3) however has a unique construction.
It uses a compliant elastomer material between the die and
the polyimide tape. TAB type beam leads are bonded onto
Au Bond Wire
0.80 mm pitch
Ball
0.30 mm
standoff
0.25 mm
BT Resin Substrate
DIE
Mold Compound
MOLD COMPOUND
DIE
standoff
0.35 mm
Pitch
Ball
0.80 mm
0.40 mm
FBGA-PI
0.4mm
eutectic
0.08 mm
Polyimide
0.3 mm
FBGA-BT
0.3mm
eutectic
0.36 mm
BT resin
0.26 mm
1.07 mm
FBGA-Cer
0.3 mm
eutectic
0.35 mm
Alumina
0.26 mm
1.18 mm
Ball size
Solder
Substrate thickness
Substrate material
Die thickness
Avg Pkg height (measured)
0.96 mm
when mounted on boar