Karl Grant Hoebener

Attachment of solder ball connect (SBC) packages to circuit cards

IBM has developed an assembly process to attach a new family of Solder Ball Connect (SBC) integrated circuit packages to glass/epoxy cards using surface mount technology (SMT). The process provides nearly perfect yields for the resulting solder ball joint structures and ensures reliability by controlling wear-out due to metallurgical fatigue. The package, card, and process parameters found to most strongly influence the assembly yield and reliability are summarized, and unique test hardware and analysis techniques are discussed. Process considerations, analytical techniques, and test methods described for SBC packages should apply to other ball grid array (BGA) packages.