A computational study on solder bump geometry, normal, restoring, and fillet forces during solder reflow in the presence of liquefied underfill

A computational survey was performed to evaluate the effect of volume and material properties on a concurrent underfilling and solder reflow manufacturing technique applied to flip-chip technology. Fillet geometry in addition to collapsed solder ball geometry and forces during solder reflow in the presence of liquefied underfill are reported. Targeted material properties included surface tension, wetting angles, and process parameters such as underfill volume. A regression model is presented representing over 1000 case studies completed using surface evolver. Also, a multiple ball model was developed to study the solder ball array behavior. Modeling results are presented. Application of this model for wafer applied coating underfill thickness prediction was also studied including the fillet forces added to a multiple-ball-model. Behavior and force studies combining all these effects were performed and are presented. Finally, a more realistic arrangement consisting of circular and square solder pad geometries combined is modeled for a single ball. The models results are expanded to include a multiball model employing a commonly used regression method. Solder joints were cross-sectioned and measured after reflow in the presence of a fluxing underfill for comparison to model predictions. The experimental results agree within 1.5%.