The investigation of the capillary flow of underfill materials

The underfilling of flip chip components with the encapsulant is based on the principles of capillary flow. A reasonable understanding of capillary flow and an effective estimate of the encapsulant's flow time will help develop a robust process. Factors which may influence the encapsulant's flow rate and its variation include the material type (viscosity, wetting characteristics, silicon particle size, etc.), the aging of the material, the substrate preheat temperature, the chemical composition and texture of the flow surface, standoff height, and the presence of obstructions (solder bumps).A screening experiment through the use of orthogonal array was conducted to determine the factors which would have a significant effect on the encapsulant's flow rate. The screening experiments served as a precursor to subsequent process modeling and the identification of a robust process design. Comprehensive experiments were then performed to further investigate the flow behavior of the underfill materials with realistic properties.