THERMAL-MECHANICAL ENHANCED HIGH-PERFORMANCE SILICONE GELS AND ELASTOMERIC ENCAPSULANTS IN MICROELECTRONIC PACKAGING

A modern electronic device is a complex 3-D structure that consists of millions of components for each single integrated circuit (IC) chip, This complex and delicate device requires effective encapsulation and packaging to ensure its long-term reliability, This device encapsulant requires not only excellent electrical and physical properties, but a lso suitable mechanical properties for hostile and extreme temperature cycling requirements (from -65 degrees to 150 degrees C), Hence, the mechanical and thermal behavior of the encapsulant plays a critical ro le in device reliability. Low stress encapsulants are the preferred ch oice for microelectronic packaging, Silicone-based materials, either t he elastomers or gels, with their low modulus and excellent electrical properties, are the best encapsulants. However, the intrinsic low mod ulus silicone provides weak mechanic protection for the IC device. We have, however, modified the silicone material with a high loading of s ilica to improve its mechanical and physical properties, This high-sil ica filler loading material improves not only its mechanical property, but also its modulus, Furthermore, this modified high modulus silicon e material tends to have microcracks during the high temperature therm al cycling testing that generates the device reliability problem, In t his paper, we will describe a modified version of the thermal-mechanic al enhanced silicone-based encapsulant, its material formulation, curi ng process, thermal mechanical failure and its protecting mechanisms, and its application as ATandT's no, 5 Electronic Switching System (ESS ) Gated Diode Crosspoint (GDX), a solid-state high-voltage switch, hyb rid IC supplemental insulating layer (SIL) materials.