Plasma cleaning of the flex substrate for flip-chip bonding with anisotropic conductive adhesive film

Advanced integrated circuit packaging processes require good bondability and reliability between various mating surfaces. A key factor affecting this requirement is surface cleanliness. Plasma cleaning is the most suitable process for optimum surface cleanliness. An investigation of O2, Ar, and O2/SF6 plasma cleaning was carried out on a flexible substrate to study the adhesion of anisotropic conductive adhesive film for flip chip bonding. Surface roughness was found to increase substantially after the plasma treatment. Adhesion strength was evaluated by 90° peeling tests both for untreated and plasma-treated flex. A higher adhesion strength of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) bond was observed after plasma cleaning. The surface morphology of plasma treated and untreated flex substrate before bonding, as well as the fracture surfaces after the peel test for both cases, was characterized by secondary electron image techniques of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Based on the detailed SEM findings, extensive comparisons were made between the plasma treated and the untreated samples. Mechanical interlocking is found to be responsible for higher peel strength of the plasma treated flex bonding. It was also proposed to select the right flexible substrate for highly reliable, ACF bonded flip chip on flex substrate.