International Business Machines Corporation

Motorola Corporation

Karl G Hoebener

John Saunders Corbin, Jr

John Acocella

Joseph Angelo Benenati

Donald R Banks

Eric M Hubacher

David P Watson

Thomas Caulfield

Anson Jay Call

Marie S Cole

Michael G McMaster

John R Behun

Julian P Partridge

Charles H Crockett, Jr

Ku Ho Chong

Francis F Cappo

John C Milliken

Stephen Alan Dunn, Deceased

Bruno T Klingel

John J Stankus

Muhammad-Yusuf J Bora

George C Castello

Ralph E Bonnell

High melting temperature Pb/Sn 95/5 solder balls are connected to copper pads on the bottom of a ceramic chip carrier substrate by low melting temperature eutectic Pb/Sn solder. The connection is made by quick reflow to prevent dissolving Pb into the eutectic solder and raising its melting temperature. Then the module is placed on a fiberglass-epoxy circuit board with the solder balls on eutectic Pb/Sn solder bumps on copper pads of the board. The structure is reflowed to simultaneously melt the solder on both sides of the balls to allow each ball to center between the carrier pad and circuit board pad to form a more symmetric joint. This process results in structure that are more reliable under high temperature cycling. Also, to further improve reliability, the balls are made as large as the I/O spacing allows without bridging beam on balls; the two pads are about the same size with more solder on the smaller pad; the pads are at least 75% of the ball diameter; and the eutectic joints are made as large as possible without bridging between pads. For reliability at even higher temperature cycles or larger substrate sizes columns are used instead of balls.

Solder ball connections and assembly process

A product created through the reflow of low melting point solder on select contacts of a printed circuit board. In one form, the printed circuit board has fine pitch devices, including flip-chip integrated circuits, connected to a board having conventional coarse pitch surface. The fine pitch contacts of the board are exposed through holes in a stencil characterized in its ability to withstand solder reflow temperatures, not be wettable by solder, and have a coefficient of thermal expansion relatively matching the printed circuit board. Low temperature solder paste is screen deposited into the stencil openings. With the stencil fixedly positioned on the board, the solder paste retained by the stencil pattern is reflowed to selectively form on the underlying contacts of the printed circuit board. Thereafter, the stencil is removed from the board and the board is subject to previously practiced depositions of flux and paste in preparation for fine and coarse pitch component placement and ensuing solder reflow. The fine contact pitch and coarse contact pitch differ by nominal factor of two or more.

Print circuit board product with stencil controlled fine pitch solder

Solder bumps are formed on a substrate, such as a semiconductor die (28) or wafer, using a screen printing and reflow operation. Solder paste (18) is screened into openings (14) of a stencil (10). The paste is reflowed within the stencil to produce a solder preform (22). The stencil and solder preforms are then aligned over the substrate to be bumped so that the preform aligns with a metal pad (30) on the substrate. The solder preforms are again reflowed, and the solder within the openings of the stencil is drawn onto the metal pad. To facilitate the transfer of the solder from the stencil to the metal pad, a second stencil (12) can be used to form a protrusion (27) on the solder preform. The protrusion contacts the metal pad during the transfer reflow operation to facilitate removing the solder from the stencil.

Method for forming bumps on a substrate

A method of manufacturing a multiple layer circuit board with stacked vias of fine dimension and pitch. A base laminate with conductive pattern is coated with a dielectric which is photolithographically processed to create holes exposing selected regions of the underlying conductive pattern. The holes through the dielectric are plated to form via connections between the surface and the conductive pattern on the base laminate. The recess created by the via is filled with a conductive and plateable polymer which upon curing forms a conductive plug. A second dielectric layer is deposited on the board structure and in succession photolithographically processed to expose the underlying plated via and plug. The hole in the second dielectric is plated and filled with conductive polymer so as to create a second via vertically aligned with and electrically connected to the underlying first via. The ability to form fine pitch stacked vias is particularly important for printed circuit board structures such as carriers of flip chip die, in that the fine pitch of the solder ball array of the flip chip needs to be expanded and/or disbursed through multiple board layers with minimum area and electrical degradation.

Method of manufacturing a multiple layer circuit board die carrier with

Fine dimension stacked vias for a multiple layer circuit board structure

Two substrates are produced each with a planar, mirror-image matrix of metal contacts in a surface wiring layer. The substrates are positioned with the matrices in parallel confrontation which defines pairs of confronting contacts. A metal ball is positioned between each pair of contacts with a respective volume of joining material between the ball and each of the two respective contacts. The volumes of joining material are simultaneously melted to allow surface tension to align the substrates and to accurately center the balls between each respective pairs of contacts in a plane defines by the matrix of balls.

Solder ball interconnected assembly

A method, and product created thereby, by which low melting point solder suitable for reflow connection of components is formed on select contacts of a printed circuit board. The method is particularly suited to the fabrication of populated printed circuit board having fine pitch devices including flip-chip devices, connected on a board including conventional coarse pitch surface mounted components. The fine pitch contacts of the board are exposed through holes in a stencil characterized in its ability to withstand solder reflow temperatures, not be wettable by solder, and have a coefficient of thermal expansion relatively matching the printed circuit board. Low temperature solder paste is screen deposited into the stencil openings. With the stencil fixedly positioned on the board, the solder paste retained by the stencil pattern is reflowed to selectively form on the underlying contacts of the printed circuit board. Thereafter, according to a preferred practice of the invention, the stencil is removed from the board and the board is subject to previously practiced depositions of flux and paste in preparation for fine and coarse pitch component placement and ensuing solder reflow. Alternate practices of the invention involve concurrent deposition of fine and coarse pitch solder and retention of the stencil following fine pitch solder fellow.

Fine pitch solder deposits on printed circuit board process and product

Disclosed is a connector structure on a substrate which includes at least one first solder portion on the surface of the substrate; at least one second solder portion connected to each of the at least one first solder portions; and an epoxy layer disposed about the at least one first and second solder portions in such a manner as to cover the first solder portion and contact, but not cover, the second solder portion. Also disclosed is a connector structure on a substrate which includes at least one first solder portion on the surface of said substrate; at least one second solder ball portion connected to the at least one first solder portions; wherein the melting point of the second solder ball portion is relatively higher than that of the first solder portion. Finally, disclosed is a method of testing the solderability of the above structures.

Interconnection structure and test method

An improved method for double sided attachment of components to a printed circuit board is described wherein surface mount components soldered to a first surface of the circuit board (backside) are, once the board is inverted during reflow, retained in place only by force of molten solder surface tension.

Method of attaching electronic components

A technique for one step solder application through a mask to a printed circuit board (PCB) having pads for surface mountable components and through holes for a leaded components is disclosed wherein the amount of solder deposited on the pads and in the holes is simultaneously, independently controlled as a function of mask thickness, blade hardness and blade to mask angle.

Solder deposition control

A technique is disclosed for attaching a variety of device types to the same side of a printed circuit board including a single solder application step for both surface mountable and leaded components, placement of the devices, drying of the solder and solder reflow.

Growing community of inventors

Georgetown, TX, United States of America

Karl G Hoebener