Popcorning: a failure mechanism in plastic-encapsulated microcircuits

Popcorning is a failure mechanism in plastic-encapsulated microcircuits. It occurs when the inherently hygroscopic encapsulant is rapidly exposed to high temperatures during reflow solder assembly of the component to a printed circuit card. At these temperatures the moisture absorbed by the molding...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on reliability 1995-09, Vol.44 (3), p.362-367
Main Authors: Gallo, A.A., Munamarty, R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Assembly
Copper alloys
Delamination
Electronics
Exact sciences and technology
Failure analysis
Iron
Lead
Operational research and scientific management
Operational research. Management science
Plastics
Reflow soldering
Reliability theory. Replacement problems
Stress
Temperature
Testing, measurement, noise and reliability
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Summary:Popcorning is a failure mechanism in plastic-encapsulated microcircuits. It occurs when the inherently hygroscopic encapsulant is rapidly exposed to high temperatures during reflow solder assembly of the component to a printed circuit card. At these temperatures the moisture absorbed by the molding compound vaporizes and rapidly expands leading to the development of high stresses. When these stresses exceed both the interfacial adhesion strength and the fracture toughness of the molding compound, delamination and cracking result. Cracking is accompanied by a characteristic pop sound (and thus the name popcorning). Popcorning can: lead to a long-term reliability problem, since the cracks can be a path for ionic contaminants, causing corrosion-induced failures; and result in sheared or cratered ball bonds, causing electrical failures.< >
ISSN:0018-9529
1558-1721
DOI:10.1109/24.406565