Controlling warpage of molded package for inkjet manufacturing

A system consisting of four silicon dies and several discrete components was encapsulated with epoxy mold material and the package was used for the evaluation of inkjet manufacturing in electronics. Experimental samples showed that the molding process induces thermo-mechanical stresses that warp the package after the mold resin is cured at elevated temperature. The molding process was modeled using the finite element method (FEM), and different package structures were simulated to see how those affect the final warpage of the package. Material properties of the mold material were measured and used in the FE model. The viscoelastic behavior of mold material was modeled with a sum of Prony series terms and a time-temperature shift factor was used to include the temperature effect. To verify the modeling assumptions, the surface profile of an experimental package was measured with an optical profilometer and the measurements were compared with the simulated profile. A good correlation was found between the measured and simulated profile of the package. The simulations with different package structures showed that e.g. an additional film placed on top of the mold resin reduces significantly the warpage of the package.