New dummy design and stiffener on warpage reduction in Ball Grid Array Printed Circuit Board

Abstract

Abstract Printed Circuit Board (PCB) warpage increases as thickness decreases and ultimately is attributed to CTE mismatch and thickness geometry of the components. Recently, a thin Ball Grid Array (BGA) PCB has been developed due to the advantages like high electrical translation speed with low signal noise. Large warpage severely limited by BGA PCB performance leads to reliability issues modes such as crack and delamination between interconnection components. This is why a dummy design on a BGA PCB and metal stiffener on a Flip Chip (FC) BGA PCB warpage are analyzed experimentally. At the first step, new dummy design in BGA PCB (BoC type) is proposed to reduce warpage. The new dummy design is shaped as a bar. Results of the statistical experimental analysis show PCB warpage using the new dummy design is significantly reduced compared to the use of a PCB with a conventional dummy design. Furthermore, the new dummy design decreases PCB warpage by about 67%. These results signify that the stiffness of the BoC PCB is improved by the new dummy design because the bar-shaped Cu pattern in the dummy acts as a rigid bar stiffener. At the second step, metal stiffener effect is studied to reduce coreless FCBGA PCB warpage. Coreless FCBGA PCB, coreless FCBGA package, and specimens with non-symmetric structure are considered to determine metal stiffener effect on warpage. The experimental results show that metal stiffener has high stiffness, and it seems very effective on reducing average and standard deviation of coreless PCB warpage.