Sensitivity Analysis for Geometrical Parameters of BGA in Flip-Chip Packaging Under Random Shear Stress and Thermal Temperature

The ball grid array (BGA) is a type of popular and competitive package in electronic flip-chip packaging due to its feasibility in high density integrated circuits and convenience in the product design process. However, the effects of geometrical parameters on the product reliability and safety under complicated operating situations are not clear. In this article, an independent solder ball and four typical BGA cases are compared and analyzed based on the finite element (FE) method. The coupled random shear stress and thermal temperature are simulated in the FE models by the Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) method. According to the sensitivity analysis, the edges of the solder ball are the most dangerous places, which has the qualitative agreement with the experimental results. The complete grid array in the first BGA case with homogeneous stress and strain distribution is the most reliable and competitive design. Furthermore, the normal and Weibull distributions are not suitable to present the stochastic response of solder balls in flip-chip packaging under random coupled mechanical and thermal stress. In order to effectively improve packaging performance and reliability, the radius of the solder ball acts as the key factor, while the upper and lower height of the solder ball, as well as the pitch along the X- and Y-directions, are all feasible and potential for the geometrical optimization. However, the small scale of the solder ball causing microstress concentration points and discontinuous volumes is the essential challenge for industrial manufacturing. The work in this article provides helpful references to the industrial electronic package geometrical optimal design.