Structural design optimization for board-level drop reliability of wafer-level chip-scale packages

In this paper, the Taguchi optimization method is applied to obtain the optimal design in enhancing board-level drop reliability of a wafer-level chip-scale package (WLCSP) under JEDEC drop test condition 13, which features a half-sine impact acceleration pulse with a peak acceleration of 1500 G and a pulse duration of 0.5 ms. An L-9 (3(4)) orthogonal array is arranged for the optimization of four control factors that involve compositions of solder alloys and thickness of die and polyimide passivation layers. The submodeling technique capable of dealing with path-dependent features, including elastoplastic responses of solder joints and structural nonlinearity under drop impacts, is applied so that delicate structures of passivation, under bump metallurgy (UBM), and redistribution line (RDL) in a WLCSP package can be taken into account. Effects of these control factors oil the drop reliability of WLCSP are compared and ranked. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.