Board level temperature cycling study of large array Wafer Level Package

The demand for wafer level packages (WLP) has increased significantly due to its smaller package size and lower cost. However, board level reliability of WLP is still a major concern. This study investigates the board level temperature cycle reliability of three very different wafer level package configurations. Comprehensive studies are carried out through temperature cycle test, failure analysis, and finite element modeling. To assess the wafer level package capability and technology limit, the following parameters are considered: WLP structure, array size, ball locations, ball pitch, and temperature cycle profile. Daisy-chain chips are used for this study. Extensive failure analysis was carried out to confirm failure mechanism and quantify the mechanical degradation among different solder joints due to temperature cycle stressing. It is suggested that the primary failure mechanism is solder fatigue. The crack is in bulk solder at package side. The cracks initiate from both sides of the solder joint. The cracks propagate from edge toward the center of the solder ball. The corner balls are most susceptible to solder joint failures. Based on test data, making corner balls electrically not connected improves the WLP reliability by 30%. It is concluded that WLP structure A has superior solder joint reliability compared to B and C. For a given ball array size, smaller pitch gives better solder joint life. The solder joint fatigue life is approximately 1.2 times longer for 2 cycle per hour (cph) conditions than 1 cph temperature cycling condition.