Comparison of thermomigration behaviors between Pb-free flip chip solder joints and microbumps in three dimensional integrated circuits: Bump height effect

Abstract

Packaging technology is currently transition from flip chip technology to three dimensional integrated circuits (3D ICs) to meet the requirements of consumer electronic products. Compared to flip chip technology, the dimension of microbumps in 3D ICs is shrunk by a factor of 10. In this study, the behaviors of thermomigration in Pb-free solders of flip chip and 3D ICs are presented. When the bump height is 100 μm in the flip chip samples, the Sn protrusion was observed at the hot end and voids formation at the cold end. However, when the bump height is reduced to 5.8 μm in the 3D IC samples, no significant microstructural evolution of Sn was found; instead, the dissolution of Ni under-bump metallization at hot end was observed. We propose that discrepancy between flip chip solder joints and 3D IC microbumps is mainly attributed to the effect of back stress and the presence of thicker Ni under-bump metallization in the 3D IC packaging. Moreover, the critical temperature gradient in terms of different bump heights is discussed, showing below which there will be no net effect of thermomigration of Sn.