• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2022

In the era of Fifth-Generation (5G), technology requirements such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud computing, automatic vehicles, and smart manufacturing are increasing. For high efficiency of electronic devices, research on high-intensity circuits and packaging for miniaturized electronic components is important. A solder paste which consists of small solder powders is one of common solder for high density packaging, whereas an electroplated solder has limitation of uniformity of bump composition. Researches are underway to improve wettability through the addition of nanoparticles into a solder paste or the surface finish of a substrate, and to suppress the formation of IMC growth at the metal pad interface. This paper describes the principles of improving the wettability of solder paste and suppressing interfacial IMC growth by addition of nanoparticles.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.123-128
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• 2018

Effect of activators in flux on the printability and wettability of a solder paste was evaluated in this study. The activators in this study were dicarboxylic acids, which were oxalic acid (n = 0), malonic acid (n = 1), succinic acid (n = 2), glutaric acid (n = 3), adipic acid (n = 4), and pimelic acid (n = 5). When the solder pastes were observed with a SMT scope, solder with glutaric acid showed clean and shiny surface when it was melted. Slump ratio of the solder pastes was low when the carbon numbers of the dicarboxylic acid were 1-3. Spreadability was high when the carbon number was over 2. Zero cross time of wetting balance test was under 1 sec when the carbon number was over 3. When activator was oxalic acid or malonic acid, zero cross time was over 1 sec and maximum wetting force was low. Fluxes with the oxalic acid and malonic acid showed decomposition at the temperature close to melting point. Among the dicarboxylic acids, glutaric acid provided excellent slump, spreadability, and wettability.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2015

With difficulties during the cleaning of reflow flux residues due to the decrease of the part size and interconnection pitch in the advanced electronic devices, the need for the no-clean solder paste is increasing. In this study, an epoxy curable solder paste was made with SAC305 solder powder and the curable flux of which the main ingredient is epoxy resin and its reflow solderability, flux residue corrosivity and solder joint mechanical properties was investigated with comparison to the commercial rosin type solder paste. The fillet shape of the cured product around the reflowed solder joint revealed that the curing reaction occurred following the fluxing reaction and solder joint formation. The copper plate solderability test result also revealed that the wettability of the epoxy curable solder paste was comparable to those of the commercial rosin type solder pastes. In the highly accelerated temperature and humidity test, the cured product residue of the curable solder paste showed no corrosion of copper plate. From FT-IR analysis, it was considered to be resulted from the formation of tight bond through epoxy curing reaction. Ball shear, ball pull and die shear tests revealed that the adhesive bonding was formed with the solder surface and the increase of die shear strength of about 15~40% was achieved. It was considered that the epoxy curable solder paste could contribute to the improvement of the package reliability as well as the removal of the flux residue cleaning process.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2022

The wettability and rheological properties of solder paste with the size of the solder powder were evaluated. To formulate the solder paste, three types of solder powder were used: T4 (20~28 ㎛), T5 (15~25 ㎛), and T6 (5~15 ㎛). The viscosities of the T4, T5, and T6 solder pastes at 10 RPM were 155, 263, and 418 Pa·s, respectively. After 7 days, the viscosity of the T4 solder paste slightly increased by 2.6% and that of T5 was increased by 20.6%. The viscosity of the T6 solder paste after 7 days could not be measured due to high viscosity. The viscosity variation with solder particle size also affected on the printability of the solder. In the case of the T4 solder paste, printability, slump, bridging, and soldering properties were excellent. On the other hand, T5 showed slight dewetting and solder ball defects. Especially, T6, which the smallest powder size, showed poor printability and dewetting at the edge of solder.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.21-27
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• 2017

A soldering temperature of ($235{\pm}3$) $^{\circ}C$ is described in ISO 9455-15 for the copper corrosion test. However, this temperature is not suitable for performing lead-free solder pastes. We evaluated the compatibility of a lead-free solder paste in the experimental conditions of (Liquidus temperature + ($35{\pm}3$)) $^{\circ}C$. Based on the results after a Cu corrosion test, a proper temperature for Pb-free soldering was (melting point+($35{\pm}3$)) $^{\circ}C$. Criteria used to evaluate corrosion due to discoloration of flux residue is described in ISO 9455-15, but a more quantitative evaluation standard is needed. In this study, experimental error level was estimated by analyzing flux residue after a corrosion test for 72, 500 hours of specimens using EDS analysis with acceleration voltage. It was determined that the copper area at the flux residue boundary is suitable for the EDS analysis area.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.45-50
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• 2017

We investigated effect of Zn content on shear strengh of Sn-0.7Cu-xZn and OSP surface finished solder joints. Five pastes of Sn-0.7Cu-xZn (x=0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 wt.%) solders were fabricated by mixing of solder powder and flux using planatary mixer. $180{\mu}m$ diameter solder balls were formed on OSP surface finished Cu electrodes by screen print method, and the reflow process was performed. The shear strength was evaluated with two high shear speeds; 0.01 and 0.1 m/s. The thickness of the intermetallic compound(IMC) layer was decreased with increasing Zn content in Sn-0.7Cu-xZn solder. The highest shear strength was 3.47 N at the Zn content of 0.5 wt.%. As a whole, the shear strength at condition of 0.1 m/s was higher than that of 0.01 m/s because of impact stress. Fracture energies were calculated by F-x (Force-displacement) curve during high speed shear test and the tendency of fracture energy and that of shear strength were good agreement each other. Fracture took place within solder matrix at lower Zn content, and fracture occured near the interface of OSP surface finished Cu electrode and solder at higher Zn content.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.820-828
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• 2019

A highly reliable conductive adhesive obtained by transient liquid-phase sintering (TLPS) technologies is studied for use in high-power device packaging. TLPS involves the low-temperature reaction of a low-melting metal or alloy with a high-melting metal or alloy to form a reacted metal matrix. For a TLPS material (consisting of Ag-coated Cu, a Sn96.5-Ag3.0-Cu0.5 solder, and a volatile fluxing resin) used herein, the melting temperature of the metal matrix exceeds the bonding temperature. After bonding of the TLPS material, a unique melting peak of TLPS is observed at 356 ℃, consistent with the transient behavior of Ag₃Sn + Cu₆Sn₅ → liquid + Cu₃Sn reported by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The TLPS material shows superior thermal conductivity as compared with other commercially available Ag pastes under the same specimen preparation conditions. In conclusion, the TLPS material can be a promising candidate for a highly reliable conductive adhesive in power device packaging because remelting of the SAC305 solder, which is widely used in conventional power modules, is not observed.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.71-77
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• 2011

Main parameters of the screen printing were determined and the printing parameters were optimized for 0402, 0603, and 1005 chips in this study. The solder pastes used in this study were Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-0.7Cu. The process parameters were stencil thickness, squeegee angle, printing speed, stencil separating speed and gap between stencil and PCB. The printing pressure was fixed at 2 $kgf/cm^2$. From ANOVA results, the stencil thickness and the squeegee angle were determined to be main parameters for the printing efficiency. The printing efficiency was optimized with varying two main parameters, the stencil thickness and the squeegee angle. The printing efficiency increased as the squeegee angle was lowered under 45o for all chips. For the 0402 and the 0603 chips, the printing efficiency increased as the stencil thickness decreased. On the other hand, for the 1005 chip, the printing efficiency increased as the stencil thickness increased.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.622-627
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• 2009

Using an alkali-solution developable photosensitive resin and a carbon black as a conductive filler, photo-patternable pastes for polymer thick film resistor were fabricated and evaluated. A photo solder resist (PSR), which is usually used as protecting layer of printed circuit board (PCB), was used as a photosensitive resin so that ultraviolet exposure and alkali-aqueous solution development of paste were possible. After fabricating the photosensitive polymer resistor paste, the electrical properties of thick film resistors were measured using PCB test boards. Sheet resistance was decreased with increasing amount of carbon black, but the developability was limited in excess loading of carbon black. The sheet resistance was also reduced by re-curing and the change rate was smaller in higher carbon black loading. Moreover, finely patterned meander-type thick film resistors were fabricated using photo-process and large resistance up to several tens of sheet resistance could be obtained in small area by this technique.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.421-421
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• 2008

Generally, the polymer thick-film resistors for embedded organic or hybrid substrate are patterned by screen printing so that the accuracy of resistor pattern is not good and the tolerance of resistance is too high(${\pm}$20~30%). To reform these demerits, a method using Fodel$^{(R)}$ technology, which is the patterning method using a photosensitive resin to be developable by aqueous alkali-solution as a base polymer for thick-film pastes, was recently incorporated for the patterning of thermosetting thick-film resistor paste. Alkali-solution developable photosensitive resin system has a merit that the precise patterns can be obtained by UV exposure and aqueous development, so the essential point is to get the composition similar to PSR(photo solder resist) used for PCB process. In present research, we made the photopatternable resistor pastes using 8 kinds of epoxy acrylates and a conductive carbonblack (CDX-7055 Ultra), evaluated their developing performance, and then measured the resistance after final curing. To become developable by alkali-solution, epoxy acrylate oligomers with carboxyl group were prepared. Test coupons were fabricated by patterning copper foil on FR-4 CCL board, plating Ni/Au on the patterned copper electrode, applying the resistor paste on the board, exposing the applied paste to UV through Cr mask with resistor patterns, developing the exposed paste with aqueous alkali-solution (1wt% $Na_2CO_3$), drying the patterned paste at $80^{\circ}C$ oven, and then curing it at $200^{\circ}C$ during 1 hour. As a result, some test compositions couldn't be developed according to the kind of oligomer and, in the developed compositions, the measured resistance showed different results depending on the paste compositions though they had the same amount of carbonblack.