Bottlenecks and strategies of green mold compounds

The mold compound protects integrated circuit (IC) devices from the environmental attacks (e.g., moisture, contaminants) for its lifetime. Driven by market pressure, environmental regulations, the electronics industry is migrating to provide environmental friendly ("green") products and systems. Two major changes associated with this migration are elimination of lead and toxic halogens from the products. Thus, the halogen-free mold compound will be a part of the "green" IC package. The migration to lead-free electronics impacts the current nongreen IC packaging technology, cost and reliability of manufacturers. This article presents the technology challenges and development trend that manufacturers and end users are facing right now with the introduction of green mold compounds.