Mechanism of solder joint cracks in anisotropic conductive films bonding and solutions: Delaying hot-bar lift-up time and adding silica fillers

Micron sizes solder metallurgical joints have been applied in a thin film application of anisotropic conductive film and benefited three general advantages, such as lower joint resistance, higher power handling capability, and reliability, when compared with pressure based contact of metal conductor balls. Recently, flex-on-board interconnection has become more and more popular for mobile electronic applications. However, crack formation of the solder joint crack was occurred at low temperature curable acrylic polymer resins after bonding processes. In this study, the mechanism of SnBi58 solder joint crack at low temperature curable acrylic adhesive was investigated. In addition, SnBi58 solder joint cracks can be significantly removed by increasing the storage modulus of adhesives instead of coefficient of thermal expansion. The first approach of reducing the amount of polymer rebound can be achieved by using an ultrasonic bonding method to maintain a bonding pressure on the SnBi58 solder joints cooling to room temperature. The second approach is to increase storage modulus of adhesives by adding silica filler into acrylic polymer resins to prevent the solder joint from cracking. Finally, excellent acrylic based SnBi58 solder joints reliability were obtained after 1000 cycles thermal cycling test.