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Early Corrosion Detection of Cu-Ag Wedge bonding in Semiconductor Package

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Abstract

The most common environmental stress tests that are commonly used for corrosion risk assessment study or package integrity qualification qualifier as part of AEC-Q101E requirement are Unbiased highly accelerated stress test (u-HAST) and Unbiased humidity test(Moisture Soak). In this paper, this study is initiated due to abnormal situation whereby the failure could not be detected at 0 h as this corrosion symptom takes place after several months of storage (4 to 6 months) and failure can be only detected during customer board assembly process after subsequent period of storage. Objective of this paper is to develop a novel methodology by identifying an optimum environmental stress test condition which can replicate an early detection method to put in evidence the onset of corroded wedge on Cu-Ag system on a copper wire-bonded semiconductor device. The approach used was by subjecting the components to two different unbiased environmental stress methods, i.e., u-HAST and Moisture Soak. Pre- and post-electrical testing will be done after each interval for each stress tests. In the event if there are no electrical failures observed, post-mechanical decapsulation analysis results will be used instead. Upon mechanical decapsulation, the visual inspection on the wedge surface area and periphery of Ag plating was performed through optical inspection. x-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) will complement the Energy Dispersive x-ray (EDX) analysis to confirm the corrosion product on the wedge surface area and periphery of Ag plating area surrounding the wedge surface. Based on the evaluation results, Moisture Soak, clearly demonstrated a better leading indicator compared to u-HAST for the activation of corrosion. Moisture Soak (55 °C/85%RH) showing a consistent trend of higher corrosion detection on SOT23 package compared to u-HAST.

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Acknowledgment

The authors would like to express our appreciation to the Reliability Laboratory team, Material Analysis Team who have support us with the analysis for this project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support and research facilities provided by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS/1/2020/TK0/UKM/01/3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, 43600, Malaysia

    Saraswathy Supramaniam, Maria Abu Bakar & Azman Jalar

  2. Nexperia Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, 71450, Malaysia

    Saraswathy Supramaniam

  3. Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, 43600, Malaysia

    Azman Jalar

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  1. Saraswathy Supramaniam
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Supramaniam, S., Bakar, M.A. & Jalar, A. Early Corrosion Detection of Cu-Ag Wedge bonding in Semiconductor Package. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 22, 2317–2325 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-022-01528-0

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