Effects of hygrothermal aging on epoxy-based anisotropic conductive film

The epoxy-based anisotropic conductive film (ACF) joints have the potential of being exposed to a hygrothermal environment and susceptible to moisture sorption. The long-term hygrothermal aging will induce the irreversible damages of epoxy resins system due to susceptibility of the polymer to hydrolysis, oxidation, etc. In this study, the hygrothermal environment test was used as an accelerator for the degradation of ACF joints in Chip-on-Glass (COG) assemblies. The effects of aging on the adhesion strengths were measured by shear mode tests and the changes of molecular conformation were analyzed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Results show that the ACF adhesion strengths decrease with aging and there are some chemical modifications to the aged ACF joints.