Thermal reliability evaluation of PLCC packaging using scanning acoustic microscopy

Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) has emerged as a powerful non-destructive testing tool for microelectronic packaging testing. Under cyclical thermal loads, the microelectronic packaging is easy to produce cracks, delamination, and other defects, which can be detected using SAM. In order to study the thermal reliability of Plastic Leaded Chip Carrier (PLCC) packaging, a set of practical SAM system was developed; Then, thermal cycling test on a set of PLCC packaging was conducted according to the MIL-STD-883H Microcircuits Test Method Standard with temperature range from -65°C to 150°C. and the crack growth rate of PLCC packaging was studied experimentally using SAM. Finally, the Coffin-Manson´s constitutive model was adopted to predict thermal fatigue life, which was consistent with the experimental results. With these researches, the thermal reliability of the PLCC packaging was investigated using scanning acoustic microscopy combined with accelerated thermal cycling methods.