Recent advances on nano-materials for advanced packaging applications

The advance of semiconductor technology is mainly due to the advances of materials, especially polymeric materials. These include the use of polymers as: resists (for deep submicron lithography), adhesives (both conductive and non conductive for die attach and assembly interconnects), interlayer dielectrics (low k, low loss dielectrics for high speed and low loss signal transmission), encapsulants (discrete and wafer level packages for device protection), embedded passives (high K capacitors, high Q inductors for high density PWB substrates), superhydrophobic self-cleaning lotus effect surfaces, etc. In this presentation, I will review some of the recent advances on polymeric materials and polymer nanocomposites that are currently being investigated for these types of applications, such as: lead-free electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) with self assembly monolayer molecular wires for fine pitch and high current density interconnects, flip chip and wafer level underfills, nano lead-free alloys for low temperature interconnects, nanometal particle composites for high k embedded passives, well-aligned carbon nanotubes and graphenes for high current and high thermal interface materials (TIMs), and superhydrophobic self-clean lotus surface coatings for high efficiency solar cell applications.