Modern IC packaging trends and their reliability implications

Reliability aspects are of extreme importance for assembly and packaging, which has become a limiting factor for both cost and performance of electronic systems. On the one hand reliability can be negatively influenced by modern front-end and packaging technology, on the other hand new applications and corresponding field requirements can result in the need for new reliability tests e.g. for mobile devices. Today the three main package trends for mobile devices towards ongoing miniaturization and higher system integration are ball grid array type packages, leadless packages, and wafer level type packages. We present reliability implications based on examples of failures in these modern packaging technologies. We highlight the importance of design for reliability based on results of simulations for a leadless package. For the future it is necessary that test conditions must follow the field requirements to guarantee optimum reliability results.