A method of the measurement of moisture in IC packages using microwaves

Author

Ju, Yang ; Saka, Masumi ; Abé, Hiroyuki

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Tohoku Univ., Sendai, Japan

Volume

26

Issue

3

fYear

2003

fDate

7/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

228

Lastpage

231

Abstract

A new method to measure the moisture content of integrated circuit (IC) packages is demonstrated. The moisture contained in the encapsulant resin was determined by using microwaves. The microwave signal was transmitted into the encapsulant resin and reflected at the surface of the chip pad. The amplitude and phase of the reflection coefficient of the microwave signal, which varied with the moisture content of the encapsulant resin, were measured in order to determine the moisture content. A preliminary experiment was carried out, and the calibration equation was developed. The present technique indicates the possibility of determining the moisture content directly without drying and weighing IC packages.

Keywords

encapsulation; integrated circuit packaging; microwave reflectometry; moisture measurement; plastic packaging; calibration equation; encapsulant resin; integrated circuit packages; microwave reflection coefficient; moisture content measurement; on-line environment; plastic encapsulant; relative permittivity; Integrated circuit measurements; Integrated circuit packaging; Microwave integrated circuits; Microwave measurements; Microwave theory and techniques; Moisture measurement; Phase measurement; Reflection; Resins; Semiconductor device measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Packaging Manufacturing, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1521-334X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TEPM.2003.820808

Filename

1256726