Development of environmentally friendly nonanhydride no-flow underfills

Most no-flow underfill materials are based on epoxy/anhydride chemistry. Due to the sensitizing nature, the use of anhydride is limited and there is a need for a no-flow underfill using nonanhydride curing system. This paper presents the development of novel no-flow underfill materials-based on epoxy/phenolic resin system. Epoxy and phenolic resins of different structures are evaluated in terms of their curing behavior, thermo-mechanical properties, viscosity, adhesion toward passivation, moisture absorption and the reliability in flip-chip underfill package. The influence of chemical structure and the crosslinking density of the resin on the material properties is investigated. The assembly with nonanhydride underfill shows high reliability from the thermal shock test. Solder wetting test has confirmed the sufficient fluxing capability of phenolic resins. Results show that epoxy/phenolic system has great potential for an environmentally friendly and highly reliable no-flow underfill.