Discrete phase method study of ball grid array underfill process using nano-silica filler-reinforced composite-encapsulant with varying filler loadings

Advanced composite-encapsulant with reinforced solid inorganic fillers dispersed in the epoxy resin is regarded as a revolutionary effort in promoting the reliability of electronic device. While various researches have been conducted to study the preparation, chemical and thermomechanical properties of composite-encapsulant using filler-reinforcement, there is however no work found on the visualization aspect of the encapsulant flow progression and filler distribution in the encapsulant. In this paper, the underfilling rheology for encapsulation process of ball grid array (BGA) will be investigated using mono-dispersed nano-silica (SiO2) composite-encapsulant. The filler loadings will be varied in the range of 2-25 wt% (weight percent) for optimization purpose. Eventually this work is aimed to provide an in-depth understanding on the impact of the amount of nano-silica fillers being added in the epoxy resin. Finite volume method (FVM) based numerical simulation using discrete phase model (DPM) will be used in this paper. The simulation works reported that the increase in filler loadings of composite-encapsulant effectively lengthen the underfilling process by up to 22% together with a decrease in average encapsulant's pressure. Furthermore, the flow profiles revealed an asymmetry flow front that is prone to form at high filler loadings. This subsequently leads to issues associated to filler's accumulation and swirling. Given these issues, the optimization of filler loadings in composite-encapsulant is of prime importance. Accordingly, this study recommended the usage of 15 wt% of nano-silica composite-encapsulant that balances between the relatively lower filling time and with reduced issues relating to filler accumulation and swirling while preserve the improvement in reliability upon the fillers additive. Additionally, the simulation of dispersed particle in continuous fluid phase using DPM had decisively proven its mettle and is hopefully will pioneer a new viable numerical tool in the nano-filler composite polymer study of electronic packaging in near future.