MOISTURE SENSITIVITY AND RELIABILITY OF PLASTIC THERMALLY ENHANCED QFP PACKAGES

Standard plastic quad flat packs have difficulty meeting the thermal p erformance requirements of devices with high power dissipation, The de velopment of plastic thermally enhanced quad flat packs (TEQFP), which incorporate heat slugs or heat spreaders in the leadframes, provide a cost effective solution, Because the final packages are of molded pla stic, TEQFP's are susceptible to moisture-induced cracking and other p lastic reliability problems, This paper discusses the impact of moistu re on package cracking during the board mounting process and the overa ll reliability of TEQFP's. Based on our study using scanning acoustic tomography and reliability stress tests, our findings reveal that TEQF P's have comparable reliability to standard PQFP's if proper storage a nd drying guidelines are followed.