Particle on Bump (POB) technique for ultra-fine pitch chip on glass (COG) applications by conductive particles and adhesives

•We developed a new approach for ultra-fine pitch chip on glass (COG) bonding.•The POB method only puts the conductive particles where they are needed.•The POB might overcome high resistance and short issues in ACF interconnection.

Chip on glass (COG) technology is widely used in liquid crystal display (LCD) modules for connecting driver ICs to the displays especially for middle and small size panels. The most common COG technology currently used in display applications is based on anisotropic conductive films (ACF). As the increasing demand in higher resolution and cost reduction, the bump pitch of the driver ICs becomes finer and finer. With the reduction of bump pitch, the current ACF based COG technology is confronted with two issues: one is the increase of the chances of open circuit; the other is the increase of the chances of forming shorts. A new approach for ultra-fine pitch chip on glass (COG) bonding, named ”Particle on Bump (POB)”, is proposed in this paper. In this technique, conductive particles are planted on the top surface of bumps of a driver IC through Au–Sn intermetallic connection. The driver IC is then assembled on the glass substrate of a LCD panel with an insulated adhesive by thermal press. The new method ensures that electrical connections are established only between bumps and corresponding pads. The Au–Sn reflow process for particle planting and corresponding COG bonding process were investigated in detail. The results showed that reliable connections were formed between particles and bumps through an Au–Sn intermetallic layer and final COG interconnections thus formed performed well in reliability tests. It is concluded that the POB technique overcomes the shortcomings of current ACF technique and has good potential to provide a viable ultra-fine pitch flip chip on glass solution for display applications.