Reliability assessment of connection using HSC on LCD

Heat seal connectors (HSC) have been evaluated as a regular connection method for electronic components. In order to test the bonding reliability between HSC and the liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, several tests were carried out: thermal aging, thermal shock and vibration tests. The thermal aging test provided a constant condition of 120/spl deg/C for the HSC. The thermal shock test gave the HSC an alteration between extreme environments (-25/spl deg/C to 125/spl deg/C). The HSC peel strength after thermal aging decreased rapidly within the first 50 hours of aging, increased again and reached a peak at 150 aging hours. Afterwards, the peel strength decreased gradually. For the thermal shock test, the peel strength trend was that it decreased rapidly initially and became constant after 200 cycles of thermal shock. Peel strength after the vibration test fluctuated with the increase in the number of vibration cycles. Moreover, microstructural examination was also conducted on the treated HSC samples. A small reduction in the thickness of the copper tracks inside the HSC was found after thermal aging and thermal shock treatments. Also, some defects were detected which may be related to the decrease in peel strength.