A new approach to chemical analysis of packaging/assembly materials: SARIS™ laser ablation ICP mass spectrometry

Our recent studies with laser ablation ICP mass spectrometry (LA ICP-MS) have been focused specifically on the development of this technique for practical analysis of packaging/assembly materials involved in back-end manufacturing processes where elemental composition, element ratios, and trace metallic contamination are of critical importance. In this paper we will describe the advantages of the LA ICP-MS technique, and applications where LA ICP-MS can be used to analyze conductive, semiconductive and insulating materials without any sample pre-treatment, applications have included bonding wires, solder bumps, lead frames, polymer materials, adhesives and final packages. Environmentally sensitive contaminants such as cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and tin are shown to be easily analyzed from any solid materials. Finally, the complementary aspects of LA ICP-MS versus alternative techniques such as SEM-EDX and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for back-end manufacturing processing are also discussed.