Numerical investigation on rheology models during encapsulation of moulded underfill (MUF) for flip-chip package

This paper presents a numerical analysis of different rheology models during the encapsulation of moulded underfill (MUF) for flip-chip package. Robust computational fluid dynamics of finite volume analysis software; ANSYS FLUENT Workbench 14.5 was utilised in three-dimensional. A remarkable analysis was carried out by considering three distinctions among rheology models, namely Power Law, Cross, and Castro-Macosko. Nevertheless, a unique function has been written for the Castro–Macosko model since it considers the curing effect using user-defined functions. The volume of fluid technique was utilised to track the flow front of epoxy moulding compound (EMC). Beforehand, the flow visualization for the tray cavity has been verified by both experiment and simulation qualitatively, and it has been found to be in good agreement. It also conformed to the rheological properties, i.e., viscosity and shear rate. For MUF encapsulation, the 3D views of the melt front profile during encapsulation were presented. In addition, the viscosity-shear rate and void formation versus rows of multi-flip chips for all models were plotted and discussed. The numerical results have shown that the best rheology model for EMC during encapsulation was the Castro-Macosko model with consideration of curing effect. It was clearly found that the retardation flow occurred since the conversion of EMC took place, i.e., the curing effect. The present numerical analysis is expected to grant a good understanding of epoxy behaviour for engineers and designers in the electronic packaging industry.