Plastic-Encapsulated Microelectronics: Materials, Processes, Quality, Reliability, and Applications

The past twenty years have seen many important advances in plastic encapsulated microelectronics (PEM) technology. Thanks to new packaging materials, improved design, increased reliability testing, and other important developments, PEMs are now perceived as a dependable and, in many cases, more cost–effective option for a wide range of electronic systems applications. Nevertheless, there continues to be a surprising dearth of authoritative references on the subject. Until now, professionals in search of detailed information about the latest developments in PEM design and production have had to waste valuable time browsing through countless professional journals, monographs, and databases.

For the first time between two covers, here is a comprehensive, critical review of the state of the art in PEMs and assemblies that incorporate them. The most timely book on the subject, it provides professionals with a systematic, scientific exploration of crucial technical and reliability issues concerning the manufacture and use of PEMs—with special attention focusing on environment–specific applications. Among the important topics covered in detail:

• Encapsulating materials—composition, shapes, and sizes
• Fabrication technology—with an in depth look at potential defects that can occur during each phase of production
• Electronic system manufacturing using PEMs—with extensive coverage of thermomechanical stress induced failures that can occur during assembly
• Failure mechanisms, sites, and modes
• Failure analysis techniques—the relative strengths and weaknesses of each type
• The pros and cons of current screening techniques for reliability conformance and quality improvement and the defects they can induce
• Current qualification and life–testing techniques and their effectiveness in simulating use conditions

Plastic–Encapsulated Microelectronics is an indispensable resource for researchers and practicing mechanical and electrical engineers working in the electronics, aerospace, and automotive industries, in space agencies, or in the defense industry.

The most timely and authoritative reference on the subject, Plastic– Encapsulated Microelectronics provides professionals with a systematic, scientific exploration of crucial technical and reliability issues concerning the manufacture and use of PEMs. Comprehensive in scope, it offers detailed coverage of important topics in encapsulating materials; fabrication technology; electronic system manufacturing using PEMs; failure mechanisms, sites, and modes; failure analysis techniques; current screening techniques for reliability conformance and quality; current qualification and life–testing techniques; and more:

• Offers a systematic critical review of the state of the art in PEM design, manufacture, reliability testing, and more
• Covers a wide range of issues in PEM applications with special attention given to environment–specific PEM applications
• Features science–based explanations of manufacturing failures—especially thermo–mechanical, stress–induced failures that can occur during assembly of PEM devices on circuit cards
• Explores current screening techniques and introduces a philosophy of screening based on the "physics of failure"

MICHAEL G. PECHT is a tenured faculty member at the University of Maryland with a joint appointment in systems research and mechanical engineering. He is Chief Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Reliability and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Electronics Manufacturing and the IEEE SPECTRUM. Dr. Pecht is a Professional Engineer and an IEEE Fellow with a BS in acoustics, an MS in electrical engineering, and an MS and PhD in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Pecht is the Director of the CALCE Electronic Packaging Research Center.

LUU T. NGUYEN received his PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT in 1984 on a John and Fannie Hertz Foundation Fellowship. He is currently a program manager with the Package Technology Group at National Semi–conductor Corp., Santa Clara, California, working on several ARPA and Department of Defense–funded contracts on MCMs, single chip packaging assembly reliability, and design manufacturing issues. He also serves as a Packaging Technical Advisory Board member for the Semiconductor Research Corporation. Previously, he was with the Philips R&D Center in Sunnyvale, California, and the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. He has 5 book chapters, 7 patents, 15 invention disclosures, over 70 technical papers, and over 40 general science story features. He is a coeditor of two books. He has two Best Paper Awards and several technical awards from NASA for design work on the Viking and Mars Orbiter spacecrafts while interning atthe Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena.

EDWARD B. HAKIM is chief of the Reliability, Testability and Quality Assurance Branch, Electronics Tech–nology and Devices Laboratory, U.S. Army Laboratory Command, Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. For more than 30 years, he has been involved in Army microelectronics and semiconductor reliability R&D. Mr. Hakim has presented more than 50 technical papers and has written the text, Micro–electronic Reliability, Volume I: Reliability, Test, and Diagnostics. He has served on numerous committees, including the Defense Science Board Task Force on Commercial Components– Electronic Devices, the Department of Defense (DoD) Industry Task Force on Electrostatic Discharge, the DoD Microcircuit Planning Group, and the DoD/Industry Coordination Working Group on Generic Qualification.