A novel methodology for virtual qualification of IC packages under board level drop test

Board level drop test has become a key qualification test for portable electronic products in recent years. However, actual drop test and sample preparation are very expensive and time-consuming and requiring much manpower in measurement and failure analysis. Because of high demand for short time-to-market, drop test has become a bottleneck for semiconductor and telecommunication industry. In this paper, a novel methodology was developed for virtual qualification of IC packages under drop impact, which offers great advantages of qualifying IC packages in early design stage. The virtual qualification methodology includes drop impact modeling methodology, correlation and reference testing data set, life prediction model, derivation of passing criteria for virtual qualification from actual testing requirements, drop impact performance classification, methodology validation, monitoring, and final virtual qualification implementation. The package can be manufactured immediately after designed and virtually qualified and shipped to customers directly. The virtual qualification shortens development time at least 3 months and saves direct cost of 11kUS dollar per package for sample preparation and manpower to do testing and result analysis as well as high indirect cost.