Applications of in-line plasma cleaners in the IC packaging industry

For in-line plasma cleaners, packaging quality directly affects the cost and performance of electronic products. In IC packaging, about 1/4 of device failures are related to contaminants on material surfaces, so addressing contaminants such as microparticles and oxide layers during packaging and improving packaging quality has become especially important.

Electronic products and systems are developing toward portability, miniaturization and high performance. Processor chips run at ever higher internal frequencies, their functions keep growing more powerful, pin counts keep increasing, chip feature sizes keep shrinking, and package outline dimensions keep changing. Packaging has become as important as the chip itself: packaging quality directly affects chip performance as well as the design and manufacture of the PCB connected to it. The long-term reliability of IC packaged devices depends mainly on chip interconnection technology; inspection and analysis show that about 25% of device failures are caused by poor chip interconnection.

For in-line plasma cleaners, failures caused by chip interconnection mainly take the form of non-stick wire bonds, delamination, wire deformation and damage caused by excessive bonding pressure, and bond spacing that is too small and prone to short circuits. These failure modes are all related to contaminants on material surfaces, mainly microparticles, thin oxide layers and organic residues. In-line plasma cleaning technology offers an environmentally friendly and effective solution, and has become indispensable key equipment and a key process in highly automated packaging processes.