Flux Composition and Techniques for Use Thereof

Abstract

The present invention is directed to flux compositions and uses thereof. One composition comprises an activator and a solvent being a glycerol ethoxylate with a molecular weight of 200-500. Another composition comprises an activator, a solvent being a glycerol ethoxylate with a molecular weight of 200-500 and an amine. A soldering method for joining objects is also provided, comprising the steps of applying a flux composition to at least a portion of one or more of the objects, and joining the objects.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 438,213, filed Apr. 3, 2012, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 034,932, filed Feb. 25, 2011, the disclosures of which are expressly incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]Embodiments of the invention generally relate to soldering techniques and, more particularly, to flux compositions and techniques for use thereof.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Fluxes play an important role in solder-joining electronic components, such as semiconductor devices, onto printed circuit cards or printed circuit boards (PCBs). Flux is used in a process of flip-chip joining to a substrate that has ball grid arrays (BGA) or land grid arrays (LGA). In a typical process, by way of example, flux is applied onto a substrate followed by placing a chip onto the flux-applied substrate. Then, the chip-substrate module goes through a reflow...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention relates to a flux composition and its use in soldering materials. The flux composition includes an activator and a solvent, which can be a glycerol ethoxylate with a specific molecular weight. The activator can be an amine. The use of this flux composition helps improve the soldering process by facilitating the flow of solder during the joining of objects. This results in a more complete and effective solder joint.

Problems solved by technology

It also becomes more difficult to clean flux residue, formed during flip-chip joining, out of the narrow chip-substrate gap of the large chip package.

Non-wets which make electrical open should be avoided, and flux residue often causes delamination between underfill and chip or between underfill and substrate, resulting in failure of flip-chip packages.

As the size of solder balls in a chip decreases, slight movement of an aligned chip-laminate module during a reflow process can cause non-wets, because a typical high-throughput reflow tool tends to vibrate.

However, after joining, left-over flux and by-products of the reaction between flux and solders need to be cleaned, preferably with a low cost and environment friendly method because cleaning with organic solvent is not only harmful to human beings and the environment but also expensive, in regards to both the material itself and the waste treatment process.

Many existing fluxes in the industry, however, provide an inadequate joining capability in case of lead-free solders, give non-wets at the corner of a chip, leave considerable flux residue including organic polymers onto chip, C4 and substrate surfaces after cleaning, diffuse into the substrate outer layer, and / or cause chip movement during reflow.

By way of example, existing fluxes include disadvantageous aspects such as not providing perfect solder joining, resulting in a failure of the semiconductor package, not providing enough tackiness or viscosity, as well as often leaving polymer, tin oxide and / or organotin residues after reflow that cannot be cleaned with water.

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