• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.55 no.4
• /
• pp.202-214
• /
• 2022

Internal connections between device, package and external terminals for connecting packaging and printed circuit board are normally manufactured by electroless Ni-P plating followed by immersion Au plating (ENIG process) to ensure the connection reliability. In this study, a new non-cyanide-based immersion and electroless Au plating solutions using thiomalic acid as a complexing agent and aminoethanethiol as a reducing agent was investigated on different underlayer electroless Ni-P plating layers. As a result, it was confirmed that the deposition behavior and film properties of electroless Au plating are affected by grain size and impurity of the electroless Ni-P film, which is used as the plating underlayer. Au plating on the electroless Ni-P plating film with a dense surface structure showed the highest bonding strength. In addition, the electroless Au plating film on the Ni-P plating film has a smaller particle size exhibited higher bonding strength than that on the large particle size.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.55 no.5
• /
• pp.299-307
• /
• 2022

Gold plating is used as a coating of connector in printed circuit boards, ceramic integrated circuit packages, semiconductor devices and so on, because the film has excellent electric conductivity, solderability and chemical properties such as durability to acid and other chemicals. In most cases, internal connection between device and package and external terminals for connecting packaging and printed circuit board are electroless Ni-P plating followed by immersion Au plating (ENIG) to ensure connection reliability. The deposition behavior and film properties of electroless Au plating are affected by P content, grain size and mixed impurity components in the electroless Ni-P alloy film used as the underlayer plating. In this study, the correlation between electroless nickel plating used as a underlayer layer and cyanide-free electroless Au plating using thiomalic acid as a complexing agent and aminoethanethiol as a reducing agent was investigated.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.170-176
• /
• 2017

EPIG (Electroless Pd/immersion Au) process was studied to replace ENIG (electroless Ni/immersion Au) and ENEPIG (electroless Ni/electroless Pd/immersion Au) processes for bump surface treatment used in high reliable flip chip packages. The palladium and gold layers formed by EPIG process were uniform with thickness of 125 nm and 34.5 nm, respectively. EPAG (Electroless Pd/autocatalytic Au) also produced even layers of palladium and gold with the thickness of 115 nm and 100 nm. TEM results exhibited that the gold layer in EPIG surface had crystalline structure while the palladium layer was amorphous one. After annealing at 250 nm, XPS analysis indicated that the palladium layer with thickness more than 22~33 nm could act as a diffusion barrier of copper interconnects. As a result of comparing the chip shear strength obtained from ENIG and EPIG surfaces, it was confirmed that the bonding strength was similar each other as 12.337 kg and 12.330 kg, respectively.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.219-221
• /
• 2005

Sn-9Zn solder balls were bonded to Cu, ENIG (Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold) and electrolytic Au/Ni pads, and the effect of aging on their joint reliability was investigated. The interfacial products were different from the general reaction layer formed in a Sn-base solder. The intermetallic compounds formed in the solder/Cu joint were $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ and $Cu_{6}Sn_{5}$. After aging treatment, voids formed irregularly at the bottom side of the solder because of Sn diffusion into the $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ IMC. In the case of the solder/ENIG joint, $AuZn_{3}$ IMCs were formed at the interface. In the case of the Au/Ni/Cu substrate, an $AuZn_{3}$ IMC layer formed at the interface due to the fast reaction between Au and Zn. In addition, the $AuZn_{3}$ IMC layer became detached from the interface after reflow. When the aging time was extended to 100 h, $Ni_{5}Zn_{21}$ IMC was observed on the Ni substrate.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.49-54
• /
• 2023

Recently, System in Packaging(SIP) technology needs to meet high frequency (5G and more) communication technology and fine pitch surface treatment. The conventional Electroless Ni/Immersion Au plating(ENIG) is not suitable for high frequency range because of magnetic properties are increasing the transmission loss. Without nickel plating layer, the pattern and pad reliability level must be meet the condition. In this review paper, we investigated research trends on Ni-less surface treatment technology for high-frequency communication and frequency characteristics according to materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.412-412
• /
• 2008

ENIG(Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold)is a surface treatment method that is used most widely at fine pitch's SMT and BGA packaging process. ENIG has good diffusion barrier of Ni against solder and good wettability due to Au finish. But when the discoloration occurred on the Au finish of ENIG, some key characteristics related to the quality and reliability of PCB such as bondability, solderability and electrical flowing of packaging process could be deteriorated. In this paper, we have performed the water dip test ($88^{\circ}C$ purified water) which accelerates the galvanic corrosion of Ni diffused from the Ni-P layer. That is, the excessive oxidation of the Ni layer could result in non-wetting of the solder because the flux may not be able to remove excessive oxides. Though Au discoloration have been reported to be caused by Ni oxides in many literature, it is still open to verify and discuss The microstructures and chemical compositions have been investigated using FE-SEM, TEM, FIB, EDS and XPS. As a result, authors have found that the Au discoloration in ENIG type is severely caused by the oxidation of the Ni and the mechanism of Au discoloration can be confirmed through the experiment result of water dip test.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.237-242
• /
• 2011

The effect of shearing speed on the shear force and energy of Sn-0Ag-0.5Cu solder ball was investigated. Various UBM (under bump metallurgy)'s on Cu pads were used such as ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel, Electroless Palladium, Immersion Gold; Ni/Pd/Au), ENIG (Electroless Nickel, Immersion Gold; Ni/Au), OSP (Organic Solderability Preservative). To fabricate a shear test specimen, a solder ball, $300{\mu}m$ in diameter, was soldered on a pad of FR4 PCB (printed circuit board) by a reflow soldering machine at $245^{\circ}C$. The solder bump on the PCB was shear tested by changing the shearing speed from 0.01 m/s to 3.0 m/s. As experimental results, the shear force increased with a shearing speed of up to 0.6 m/s for the ENIG and the OSP pads, and up to 0 m/s for the ENEPIG pad. The shear energy increased with a shearing speed up to 0.3 m/s for the ENIG and the OSP pads, and up to 0.6 m/s for the ENEPIG pad. With a high shear speed of over 0 m/s, the ENEPIG showed a higher shear force and energy than those of the ENIG and OSP. The fracture surfaces of the shear tested specimens were analyzed, and the fracture modes were found to have closer relationship with the shear energy than the shear force.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.79-85
• /
• 2007

This study was focused on the feasibility of ultrasonic bonding of Au stud flip chip bumps on the flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) with three different surface finishes: organic solderability preservative (OSP), electroplated Au and electroless Ni/immersion Au (ENIG). The Au stud flip chip bumps were successfully bonded to the bonding pads of the FPCBs, irrespective of surface finish. The bonding time strongly affected the joint integrity. The shear force increased with increasing bonding time, but the 'bridge' problem between bumps occurred at a bonding time over 2 s. The optimum condition was the ultrasonic bonding on the OSP-finished FPCB for 0.5 s.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.35-39
• /
• 2011

Shearing characteristics of Sn-3.0wt%Ag-0.5wt%Cu ball for standardization of high speed shear test were investigated. The solder ball of 450 ${\mu}m$ in diameter was reflowed at $245^{\circ}C$ on FR4 PCB (Printed Circuit Board) to prepare a sample for the high-speed shear test. The metal pads on the PCB were OSP (Organic Solderability Preservative, Cu pad) and ENIG (Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold, i.e CulNi/Au). Shearing speed was varied from 0.5 to 3.0 m/s, and tip height from 10 to 135 ${\mu}m$. As experimental results, for the OSP pad, a ductile fracture increased with tip height, and it decreased with shearing speed. In the case of ENIG pad, the ductile fracture increased with the tip height. The tip height of 10 ${\mu}m$ (2% of solder ball diameter) was unsuitable since the fracture mode was mostly pad lift. Shear energy increased with increasing shearing tip height from 10 to 135 ${\mu}m$ for both of OSP and ENIG pads.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.64-69
• /
• 2012

Sn-Bi eutectic alloy has been widely used as one of the key solder materials for step soldering at low temperature. The Sn-58Bi solder paste containing chloride flux was adopted to compare with that using the chloride-free flux. The paste was applied on the electroless nickel-immersion gold (ENIG) surface finish by stencil printing, and the reflow process was then performed at $170^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. After reflow, the solder joints were aged at $125^{\circ}C$ for 100, 200, 300, 500 and 1000 h in an oven. The interfacial microstructures were obtained by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the composition of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) was analyzed using energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Two different IMC layers, consisting of $Ni_3Sn_4$ and relatively very thin Sn-Bi-Ni-Au were formed at the solder/surface finish interface, and their thickness increased with increasing aging time. The wettability of solder joints was investigated by wetting balance test. The mechanical property of each aging solder joint was evaluated by the ball shear test in accordance with JEDEC standard (JESD22-B117A). The results show that the highest shear force was measured when the aging time was 100 h, and the fracture mode changed from ductile fracture to brittle fracture with increasing aging time. On the other hand, the chloride flux in the solder paste did not affect the shear force and fracture mode of the solder joints.