Improvement of Board Level Reliability for BGA Solder Joints Using Underfill

The underfilling BGA as an alternative to direct chip attachment for high density packaging technologies have been developed. This paper discusses the thermomechanical and metallurgical effects of underfill material and the resulting improvement in board level reliability for underfilled BGA assemblies. Finite element analysis (FEA) models were developed to predict the thermal fatigue life of the solder joints during thermal cycling tests for BGA assemblies without and with underfill material. FEA predicted that the stress concentrated in the solder at the crevice between the solder ball and upper substrate was approximately 60 percent of the stress without underfill. Subsequently, the predicted fatigue life was as much as 10 times higher for the underfilled assemblies. The thermal fatigue failure of BGA solder joints was also investigated experimentally using thermal cycle testing with subsequent solder joint analysis by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The experiments revealed that solder joint failure was caused by propagation of cracks that initiated in the solder at the upper interface between the solder ball and copper pad. The fatigue life of the underfilled assemblies was about 8 times that of the assemblies without underfill. The results showed that the underfill material can play an important role in improving board level reliability for BGA solder joints in harsh environments.