Investigation of the Lead-On-Chip Package’s Reliability

An assembly test chip (ATC), consisting of varieties of test structures, had been utilized to monitor the package integrity of SOJ lead-on-chip (LOC) packages after various reliability tests. Two different types of epoxy molding compounds, namely biphenyl and EOCN epoxies, were chosen to investigate their effects on package’s reliability. After the reliability tests, silicon chip crack was observed in three test samples due to the existence of a large chip backside chipping (−120 μm). Qualitative study about this failure mechanism was carried out by a finite element analysis, and it was found that, due to the higher flexural modulus and CTE of the biphenyl epoxy, the thermally induced stresses developed in the chip encapsulated by this epoxy during reliability tests were more likely to cause the crack propagation in the silicon chip than those induced by using EOCN type epoxy.