Challenges in thermo-mechanical failure prediction of electronic packages

Early discovery of potential failure modes, and understanding their sensitivity to critical design parameters is critical to any organization involved in electronic packaging. Typically mechanical simulation are used for this purpose. Some of the recent changes - low K ILD´s (interlayer dielectrics) and lead free interconnects have introduced new challenges while increased the importance of modeling. Predicting failure in the porous ILD material introduce many challenges. In the case of lead free solders, in addition to the need to understand the fatigue characteristics of these materials, the impact of the resulting higher reflow temperatures on other packaging material must also be studied. Typical modeling techniques are very effective as a comparative tool - i.e. to compare amongst various designs for any particular failure mode.