Reliability of Fan-Out Wafer-Level Heterogeneous Integration

In this study, the reliability (thermal cycling and shock) performances of a fan-out wafer-level system-in-package (SiP) or heterogeneous integration with one large chip (5 × 5 mm), three small chips (3 ×3 mm), and four capacitors (0402) embedded in an epoxy molding compound package (10 × 10 mm) with two redistribution layers (RDLs) are experimentally determined. Emphasis is placed on the estimation of the Weibull life distribution, characteristic life, and failure rate of the solder joint and RDL of this package. The fan-out wafer-level packaging is assembled on a printed circuit board (PCB) with more than 400 (Sn3wt%Ag0.5wt%Cu) solder joints. It is a six-layer PCB. The sample sizes for the thermal cycling test and shock test are, respectively, equal to 60 and 24. The failure location and modes of the thermal cycling test and shock test of the fan-out wafer-level SiP solder joints and RDLs are provided and discussed. 3-D nonlinear finite element models are also constructed and analyzed for the fan-out heterogeneous integration package during thermal cycling and shock conditions. The simulation results are correlated to the experimental results. Finally, recommendations on improving the fan-out wafer-level SiP solder joints and RDLs under thermal and shock conditions are provided.