Thermal and electrical modelling of polymer cored BGA interconnects

Polymer cored BGA/CSP balls have been proposed as a more reliable alternative to solid solder balls for demanding application environments. Their potential advantages are dependant on their increased compliance compared with a solid solder ball, thereby reducing the level of stress imposed on the solder joints during exposure to cyclic thermal loads and impacts. The latter is of particular importance for hand held products assembled using lead free solders, which are much more brittle than traditional tin-lead alloys, but this may also be important for harsh environment applications where tin-lead solders are still being used, such as in aerospace and defence electronics applications. The increased compliance of a polymer cored ball may reduce the requirement for underfilling of components in hand held products, and allow adoption of BGA/CSP for safety critical applications in harsh environments. Such polymer cored interconnects are however likely to provide a reduced thermal and electrical conductivity and it is important to ensure any such effects do not impact upon the thermal and electrical performance of the product.