Hygrothermal effect on deformations of QFN electronic packaging

The hygrothermal-mechanical behavior of a quad flat non-lead (QFN) package without a chip inside is investigated experimentally and numerically. The present study is focused on understanding the effect of the inherent hygrothermal behaviors of epoxy molding compound (EMC) on the deformations of QFN package. Prior to studying the package, the coefficient of moisture expansion for the EMC is measured experimentally. Full-field moiré and Twyman-Green interferometries are used for measuring the real-time in-plane and out-of-plane deformations of the specimen, respectively, under thermal and moisture loading. In addition, the finite element and theoretical analyses are adopted for validating the experimental observations and further understanding the hygrothermal mechanics of the specimen. The coefficient of moisture expansion of the EMC was experimentally obtained to be about 0.2. The experimental results of the full-field deformations of the specimen, due to temperature, moisture and a combination of both, are presented. The experimental observations are validated by the finite element and theoretical analyses. It was observed that the maximum moisture-induced deformation (strain) can be up to as large as 50% of the thermal deformation (strain) caused by ΔT = 50°C for the specimen. As a result, neglecting moisture-induced deformations (strains) would cause the significant amount of error in thermal deformation (strain) measurement of plastic packages. Furthermore, the present study has laid down the fundamental mechanics and approaches for the QFN packaging structural design and analysis in terms of hygrothermal effects.