Area Array Microelectronics Package Reliability (PDC1)

Course Leader: Amaneh Tasooji, Arizona State University

Course Description:

Area Array microelectronic packages with small pitch and large I/O count grid array are used in commercial and military applications such as in aerospace, medical, telecommunication, transportation, etc. Reliability and risk assessment analyses of these widely used packages are critical elements of product design and field support. Current practice in reliability focuses on thermal cycling of manufactured components and monitors the component failure under experimental conditions representing the on/off environment of most electronic products. Life prediction methodologies (e.g., fatigue models) are used in conjunction with calculated inelastic strain analysis (e.g., finite element analysis) in reliability analysis. Reliability data on ball grid and column grid array (BGA/CGA) packages are reviewed and the current life prediction models and their applicability are discussed. Deformation and failure mechanisms influencing reliability of solder joints are studied in detail. Competing/interacting failure mechanisms such as brittle/ductile fracture, creep, fatigue, corrosion, and over-aging are discussed. Solder microstructure and Inter-Metallic Compounds (IMC) evolutions are reviewed through detailed analysis/ characterization of thermally exposed (isothermal and cyclic aging) solder joints using optical and scanning Electron Microscopy.

Who should attend?

Engineers in R&D, QA, QC, manufacturing, process development, and advanced technicians. It is assumed that participants have some familiarity with area array packages and general device assembly technologies.

Dr. Amaneh Tasooji has more than 23 years of industrial and academic experience in engineering, manufacturing, and e-business. She received her Ph. D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University in 1982 and has a B. S. degree in Physics. Dr. Tasooji has extensive/diverse technical knowledge in materials and processing, component design, manufacturing, quality, and supply chain in many industries such as microelectronics, aerospace, and nuclear. She has had many technical and leadership responsibilities while at Honeywell/AlliedSignal and has developed many materials behavior, deformation, and fracture models to improve life prediction and design capabilities, thereby increasing product reliability. Dr. Tasooji was the recipient of many technical/engineering and leadership awards including the ASTM Sam Tour Award for distinguished contributions to research, development, and evaluation of corrosion testing and modeling. She holds a patent on "Adaptive Knowledge Management System for Vehicle Trend Monitoring, Health Management and Preventive Maintenance," and has technical licenses for computer software on "Predicting Stress Corrosion Cracking in Nuclear Fuel Rods." Dr. Tasooji has developed and delivered many graduate and undergraduate engineering courses such as "Introduction to Microelectronic Packaging,"; "Structure and Properties of Materials" and "Physical Metallurgy" at Arizona State University. She has leveraged new technology and e-learning concepts in developing web-based learning tools to be used in conjunction with face-to-face teaching while emphasizing the Interactive Learning concept.

Hermeticity Testing and Issues with RGA (PDC2)

Course Leader: Thomas J. Green, Microelectronics Packaging Consultant

Course Description:

Hermeticity of electronics packages and hermeticity test techniques continue to be of critical importance to the microelectronics packaging community.  Specifically, in the area of MEMS/MOEMS packaging, OLEDs, wafer scale packaging, optoelectronic devices and packaging for Military and Space.  In addition, there are a host of medical implants, bio medical devices and emerging nanotechology applications that all require hermetic packages and valid techniques to measure the leak rate.  This course begins with an overview of hermetic sealing processes, e.g., seam welding, laser welding, solder sealing and techniques/methods to seal MEMS components at the wafer level. 

The class will then examine the accepted leak test techniques as prescribed in Mil Standard 883 Test Method 1014. This misunderstood test method is often a source of frustration.  The basic science behind helium fine leak testing (both the fixed and flexible methods) will be presented to the class along with the advantages and potential pitfalls of helium fine leak testing.  Difficulties and limitations in fine leak testing of small volume packages is a major industry concern, especially among the Space community. Issues with bomb times and pressures, measured leak rate vs air leak rates,  "one way leakers," virtual leakers will be addressed, along with gross leak testing; bubble, weight gain, etc. In each case the focus will be on practical issues facing the industry. 

The latest technique for measuring both gross and fine leak testing is Optical Leak Test (OLT). In this method a laser interferometer measures out of plane deflection on a lid surface in response to a changing pressure and relates them to an equivalent helium leak rate.  For some packages, such as opto devices with fiber arrays, OLEDs and wafer level testing OLT is the only viable technique. 

The ultimate goal is to seal the electronics/MEMS in a dry, inert atmosphere to allow reliable functioning of the device over its intended lifetime. A proper pre seal bake out is required for a dry package. The gas ambient inside the package is measured using Residual Gas Analysis.  What is RGA (Residual Gas Analysis)?  How does this relate to hermeticity testing? Are the current spec limits valid for next generation MEMS/MOEMS and Nanotechnology?  What is the basis for the existing spec?  Besides moisture what other outgassing products are of concern?  The basic science behind RGA testing will be presented and Industry case studies and will help illustrate the answers to these question and more. 

Special Course Material:

All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of "Hermeticity of Electronic Packages" by Hal Greenhouse, Noyes Publications 2000 (List price $139).

Who Should Attend?          

This PDC is intended as an introductory to intermediate level course for process engineers, designers, quality engineers, and managers responsible for sealing, leak testing and RGA results.

Mr. Green is a consultant and adjunct professor at the National Training Center for Microelectronics.  At NTCm he designs curriculum and teaches industry short courses relating to advanced microelectronics manufacturing processes. He has over twenty years experience in the microelectronics industry at Lockheed Martin Astro Space and USAF Rome Laboratories. At Lockheed he was a Staff engineer responsible for the materials and manufacturing processes used in building custom high reliability space qualified microcircuits (Hybrids, MCMs and RF modules) for military and commercial communication satellites. Tom has demonstrated expertise in seam sealing and leak testing processes.   He has conducted experiments and presented technical papers at NIST and IMAPS on leak testing techniques and optimization of seam welding processes through statistical DOE methods. At Rome Labs he worked as a senior reliability engineer and analyzed component failures from AF avionic equipment along with providing technical support for a variety of Mil specs and standards (e.g. MIL-PRF-38534 and MIL-STD-883). Tom is an active member of IMAPS. He has a B.S. in Materials Engineering from Lehigh University and a Masters from the University of Utah.

Advanced Thermal Management Materials (PDC3)

Course Leader: Carl Zweben, Advanced Thermal Materials Consultant

Course Description:

In response to critical needs, there have been revolutionary advances in thermal management materials in the last few years.  There are now over 15 low-CTE, low-density materials with thermal conductivities ranging between 400 and 1700 W/m-K, and many others with somewhat lower conductivities.  Some are low cost.  Others have the potential to be low cost in high-volume.  Production applications of advanced materials include servers, laptops, PCBs, PCB cold plates/heat spreaders, cellular telephone base stations, hybrid electric vehicles, power modules, phased array antennas, thermal interface materials (TIMs), optoelectronic telecommunication packages, laser diode and LED packages, and plasma displays.  For example, IBM is now using diamond particle-reinforced silicon carbide heat spreaders that have a thermal conductivity of over 600 W/m-K, compared to 400 for copper.  Carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy constraining layers can tailor PCB CTE and increase thermal conductivity, allowing heat removal from the bottom, as well as the top of a chip.  The technology is increasingly important for 3D packages as heat loads increase.

Advanced material payoffs include:

·          increased reliability

·          reduced thermal stresses and warpage

·          simplified thermal design

·          reduction/elimination of fans, heat pipes, liquid cooling and refrigeration

·          reduced weight and size

·          reduce cooling power requirements

·          increased battery life

·          increased stiffness and strength

·          enablement of hard solders by minimizing CTE mismatches 

·          increased manufacturing yield

·          reduced system cost

This course covers the large and increasing number of advanced thermal management materials, providing an in-depth discussion of properties, manufacturing processes, applications, cost, lessons learned, typical development programs, and future directions, including carbon nanotubes.  Traditional materials are discussed for reference.  Participants are invited to bring their thermal management problems for discussion.

Who Should Attend?

Engineers, scientists and managers involved in microelectronic, optoelectronic and MEMS/MOEMS packaging design, production and R&D; packaging material suppliers.

Dr. Zweben, now an independent consultant, directed development and application of advanced thermal management and packaging materials for over 30 years.  He was formerly Advanced Technology Manager and Division Fellow at GE Astro Space, where he directed the Composites Center of Excellence, and was the first to use Al/SiC.  Other affiliations have included DuPont, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Georgia Institute of Technology NSF Packaging Research Center.  Dr. Zweben was the first, and one of only two winners of both the GE One-in-a-Thousand and Engineer-of-the-Year awards. He is a Fellow of ASME, ASM and SAMPE, an Associate Fellow of AIAA, and has been a Distinguished Lecturer for AIAA and ASME.  He has published and lectured widely.

Reliability Methodologies for Fiber Optic Components (PDC4)

Course Leader: David Maack, JDS Uniphase

Course Description;

The quantification of reliability for fiber optic components is a broad, complex and difficult issue primarily driven by three factors. The first is the myriad of different technologies, processes and materials used to make an endless variety of active and passive products. The second is the rapid product evolution coupled with short product life cycles. The third is that many of these components exhibit extremely high reliability making quantification very difficult. This course  outlines the mathematics, methodologies, procedures and tricks of the trade to set up, run and determine the reliability of fiber optic components. It is not meant to be a listing of how to make specific devices reliable or even address all the modes of failure in the various products.as this is beyond the scope of a ½ day course. Some of the specific topics included are: 1. Reliability mathematics focused on fiber optic components with EXCEL® spreadsheets showing formulas. 2. A real world approach to qualification and reliability testing with case studies and exercises. 3. Lists of pertinent components, industry specifications, standards, mathematical models and available software programs. 4. Guidelines in how to set up and maintain an adequate qualification and reliability program with many practical hints and tips.  4.  Worked examples showing how to take a device through testing, data gathering, data alalysis, and failure calculations to develop a failure rate vs. time curve at operating conditions.

Benefits and Learning Objectives

This course should enable you to:

·          Set-up a reliability and qualification lab using many 'tricks of the trade'

·          Establish appropriate reliability tests and gather meaningful data

·          Determine the proper statistical distribution for a set of failure data

·          Calculate the reliability of a device using accelerated testing data with several case studies for guidance

·          Find information on standards, components, reliability software and other reference materials.

·          Read reliability reports and determine their adequacy

·          Find computer software to do complex reliability mathematics

Who Should Attend?

This course is intended for a general audience with no particular background except an interest in the reliability of fiber optic components. It is meant to impart valuable information at all levels of education.

David Maack is a senior reliability engineer at JDSU in Ewing, New Jersey where the company designs packaging solutions for new fiber optic source lasers, transmitters, detectors, and receivers.  In addition, he is one of the authors for the new Telcordia GR-468 qualification standard for active components and the chairman for the IEC TC-86B, Working Group 5, "Reliability Standards for Passive Fiber Optic Components."  He has authored numerous papers, has multiple patents, and is a frequent speaker.  His 30-year career in fiber optics includes engineering, manufacturing and management positions in firms producing a wide variety of passive and active fiber optic components. He has B.S. degrees in Physics and Nuclear Science along with a MBA.

Fundamentals of Packaging of MEMS and Related Microsystems and Nanomanufacturing (PDC5)

Course Leader: Ajay P. Malshe, University of Arkansas

Course Description:

Fabrication and application specific packaging of micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) is a subject of immense interest. Their application specific packaging with other components is challenging and, unlike IC packaging, has a different set of demands from releasing, dicing to interconnection at chip-scale and manufacturing at wafer-level. This globally taught course will address silicon and non-silicon micro fabrication processes and related design details, and packaging of silicon and non-silicon MEMS and related microsystems. The course will use a range of novel applications to advocate the use of various fabrication and packaging processes. The course will also introduce a new area on the horizon "nano packaging - manufacturing." In the broader scope of the subject, for the 21st century packaging community infusion of signals (electrical, optical, chemical, mechanical, etc.), domains (hermetic, vacuum, fluidic, optical, etc.) and scales (nano-to-micro-macro) are of significant importance for designing and developing next generation engineered micro and nano products as well as for adding value / functions to existing products. Particularly, key words, namely MEMS, micro systems and nano technology, have captured the attention of technology leaders. MEMS and related micro systems are typically divided into two application areas: sensors and actuators. These are applied for a range of applications such as automotive, biomedical, optical, RF, etc.  Examples of systems, devices and related application specific packages, are accelerometers, gyros, DMD^TM, lab-on-a-chip, SMART drugs, etc. Further, with the major investment and key advancements in nanotechnology, nano integrated MEMS and related micro devices and packages are of major importance to next generation engineered electronic systems.

Course Notes: (1) Chapter by "Packaging of MEMS and MOEMS: Challenges and A Case Study" by Drs. Malshe and O'Conner, (2) copies of the transparencies on MEMS and Nanomanufacturing, and (3) publication: "NSF-EC Workshop on Nanomanufacturing and Processing: A Summary Report," Malshe et al., SPIE International Symposium on Smart Materials, Nano-, and Micro-Smart Systems, Melbourne, Australia, December 2002.

Specific Topics Covered:

·          Introduction to MEMS and Related Microsystems

·          Fundamentals of silicon and other related micro fabrication techniques

·          Introduction to M4 in comparison to MEMS

·          Nontraditional micro fabrication processes, such as femtosecond laser and micro EDM processing

·          Introduction to applications of MEMS and related microsystems and application specific packaging

·          System-on-a-chip vs. system-in-a-package: challenges and trade-offs for MEMS packaging

·          IC packaging vs. MEMS packaging: differences and similarities

·          Packaging and assembly of MEMS and related micro devices: role of die release, handling, dicing, attachment, interconnections, outgassing, encapsulation, wafer-level packaging, etc., for application specific MEMS and related microsystem packaging

·          Implementation of MEMS to RF, fluidics, sensors, and related applications

·          Manufacturing of related products and markets

·          Future directions: Nanomanufacturing and Integration

·          Q & A Session

Who Should Attend?

The course is meant for industry and academic leaders and investors in science and engineering with interest in MEMS and related micro and nano systems. Highly recommended for R&D scientists, engineers and managers involved in sensors, actuators, instrumentation and systems related to micro and nano systems technology. Graduate students with special interest in the above areas will also find it useful.

Ajay P. Malshe, Ph.D., is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and adjunct-faculty of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas. He is Director of the Materials and Manufacturing Research Laboratories. He is a Fellow of The Institute of Physics (IOP). He is a Materials Scientist and Engineer. Malshe has multidisciplinary research programs in MEMS and microelectronic packaging and integration, nanomanufacturing and surface engineering for advanced machining. He has authored over one hundred and twenty five refereed publications, three book chapters, and holds six patents. He has initiated the development of wafer level chip scale packaging of MEMS and related microsystems, nano-mechanical machining system-on-a-chip, nano-particle composite coatings, femtosecond laser for chemically clean machining. He has graduated over twenty-five students, trained numerous post-doctoral fellows, and provided research experience to several undergraduate and high school students. He has received fourteen awards for research, education and service achievements (1996-2005) and is listed in Lexington's Who's Who. He has an extensive record of global collaborations with academic institutions and companies, and has co-founded two companies in the nano and micro technology sectors in the state of Arkansas.

Microwave & Millimeter Wave Packaging; Basics, Materials and Processes (PDC6)
Course Leaders: Fred Barlow & Aicha Elshabini, University of Arkansas

Course Description:

Today, a wide range of applications require circuits or circuit elements which process high frequency information in the radio wave frequency band, as well as in the microwave range (300 MHz-30 GHz) and the millimeter wave frequency range (30 GHz-300 GHz). These applications are rapidly growing and include communication devices such as cell phones, wireless networking, as well as a wide range of radar and electronic warfare applications. These types of applications often are associated with unique challenges not found in digital or low frequency circuits. In many cases, the packaging considerations are fundamentally different in these frequency ranges.

This course will serve as an introduction to package design, fabrication, and testing for microwave and millimeter wave applications. It will cover the basic issues that make high frequency circuits unique, as well as planar transmission line structures, their design, and behavior. Materials and fabrication technologies applicable to high frequency circuits will be discussed in detail. In addition, an overview of the design process for passive structures to achieve common electrical functions such as filters, couplers, inductors, capacitors, etc., will be provided. Finally, methodologies for the design and simulation of structures and circuits will be described as well as methods for the measurement and characterization of their electrical properties.

The course will also touch on the latest trends in this area such as MEMS switches, and the latest advances in MMIC and wideband gap semiconductors such as GaN.

Who Should Attend?

Engineers, managers, and technicians, who wish to expand their background or strengthen their understanding of the Microwave and Millimeter Wave technology. The course will not assume any prerequisite background.

Fred Barlow earned a Bachelors of Science in Physics and Applied Physics from Emory University, a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. He is currently Associate Professor & Associate Department Head in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Barlow has published widely on electronic packaging and electronic materials evaluation and is Co-Editor of The Handbook of Thin Film Technology (McGraw Hill, 1998), as well as the text entitled, Ceramic Interconnect Handbook (to be published by Marcel Dekker 2006).

Aicha Elshabini is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering. She obtained a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering at Cairo University, in both Electronics and Communications areas, a Masters in Electrical Engineering at University of Toledo, in Microelectronics, and a Ph.D. Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Colorado, in Semiconductor Devices and Microelectronics. Currently, she is serving the position of Department Head for the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas (since July 1, 1999). She has been serving as the faculty advisor for IMAPS' student society at both Virginia Tech and University of Arkansas institutions since 1980. Elshabini is a 'Fellow' member of IEEE Society (1993) Citation for 'Contribution to Hybrid Microelectronics Education and to Hybrid Microelectronics to Microwave Applications,' a 'Fellow' member of IMAPS Society (1993), the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society, Citation for 'Continuous Contribution to Microelectronics and Microelectronics Industries for numerous years.' Dr. Elshabini was awarded the 1996 John A. Wagnon Jr., Technical Achievement Award from IMAPS. She served as the Editor of the IMAPS International Journal of Microcircuits & Electronic Packaging for 10 years.