A method of investigating fine shorting whiskers within a leadframe molded package

Author

Yen, Andrew C. ; Hongyu, Zheng ; Wynn, Richard Thet ; Yaohui, Zhang ; Wang, Lingfai

Author_Institution

Failure Analysis & Reliability Dept., Inst. of Microelectron., Singapore

Volume

24

Issue

1

fYear

2001

fDate

2/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

99

Lastpage

103

Abstract

A potential method to investigate fine whiskers which cause electric shorts between adjacent leads in a plastic molded leadframe is discussed. This technique uses mechanical milling and excimer laser etching to expose the fine whiskers within a packaged module. The combination of these two processes enables us to expose the fine whiskers without changing the position or composition. Subsequent material analyses can then be applied, and the process step by which the whisker was introduced can be determined. This method has also been applied in analyzing various soldering levels of a hybrid integrated circuit (IC)

Keywords

hybrid integrated circuits; integrated circuit packaging; laser beam etching; laser beam machining; moulding; plastic packaging; excimer laser etching; fine shorting whiskers; hybrid integrated circuit; leadframe molded package; material analyses; mechanical milling; packaged module; plastic molded leadframe; soldering levels; Etching; Hybrid integrated circuits; Laser beam cutting; Lead; Microelectronics; Milling; Optical materials; Packaging; Plastics; Soldering;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1521-3323

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/6040.909632

Filename

909632