Reliability of Anisotropic Conductive Film Joints Using Bumpless Chip—Influence of Reflow Soldering and Environmental Testing

Abstract

This paper presents the reliability of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) joint tested under reflow soldering and environmental test effect. The ACF joint behaved differently under different reflow soldering profiles. The lower reflow temperature resulted in more reliable ACF joints by maintaining low contact resistance. By contrast, high contact resistance was found in assemblies treated with higher reflow. Under humidity aging (85°C/85%RH), bumpless chips proved to be unreliable due to corrosion mechanism. Moreover, ACF had shown degradation in chemical and physical properties, including modulus reduction, Tg depression, polymer hydrolysis, and surface swelling after exposing to humidity aging. The deterioration in reliability of aged ACF joint during reflow process was mainly caused by hydroscopic swelling-induced stress of ACF.