Nature of Package-Induced Deformation and the Risk of Fracture in Low-k Dielectric Stacks

The risk of fracture in Interlayer Dielectric (ILD) stack is evaluated for various configurations of flip-chip packages in this paper. A novel analysis on the mechanical behavior of package with a focus on die surface provides the insights into the critical deformation state as well as its location. In Controlled Collapse Chip Connection (C4) process, the reflow phase involves a cooling of the entire package from the reflow temperature to room temperature, and is critical for package induced die cracking (Chip-Package Interaction or CPI). We use commercial finite element software ABAQUS to construct local sub-models of ILD region from global models of a representative 3-D package with component materials modeled as being temperature dependent elastic or elasto-plastic as appropriate. The risk of ILD fracture is systematically investigated using the described approach.