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High elongation adhesive compounds are frequently employed to bond dissimilar substrates exposed to thermal cycling. The ever increasing market demand for more powerful, versatile electronic devices has led to many physical changes in the underlying circuitry. Larger chips with higher I/O counts facilitate increased processing power and functionality. Fragile micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) augment traditional processing resources with sensing and control capabilities. Thinner silicon or gallium
where is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion, is the change in length of the material, L is the initial length of the material, and T is the change in temperature. The CTE is a ratio of the change in length per degree temperature change to the initial length, and is usually reported as ppm/C. The higher the CTE of a given material, the more it will expand or contract with temperature excursions. Since CTEs vary with temperature, they are usually given for a specific temperature range. The equation above can be rearranged as follows: This equation shows that, for a given temperature excursion, the amount of expansion (or contraction) of a material is proportional to its CTE and to its initial length.
= LL
xT
L= x L x T
So components and substrates made of materials with different CTEs will expand and contract at different rates, and larger components will expand (or contract) more than smaller components. This simple relationship illustrates the heart of the problem with bonding dissimilar materials in electronic assemblies. Temperature excursions cause the materials to expand and contract at very different rates. At each joint, as the bonded materials expand and contract, they push and pull on each other with different forces. These differential forces lead to stress build up and that stress is relieved through cracking, warping, fracturing, and other failures. Global CTE mismatches between electronic components and printed circuit boards (PCBs) can range anywhere from 2 ppm/C to 14 ppm/C for well-matched materials depending on the substrates. The table below lists typical CTEs for a variety of materials commonly used in electronic assemblies.
Special low stress adhesive systems feature superior heat dissipation properties, exceptional temperature resistance and outstanding electrical insulation characteristics.
Material
ceramic tantalum glass, borosilicate silicon gold FR-4 PCB polyimide/glass PCB polyimide/Kevlar PCB copper lead frames Kovar lead frames filled epoxy resins (<Tg ) tin-lead solder alloy (60/40) lead-free solder alloy (Sn3.5Ag)
CTE, ppm/C
9.5-11.5 6.5 3.24-4.5 2.6-3.0 14.1 18 12 7 16-17 5.1-5.5 18-25 24.6 21.5
Typical coefficients of thermal expansion for various materials. Stress also develops as a result of local CTE mismatches between the bonding material whether a solder alloy or an adhesive and the base material of the component or printed circuit board (PCB) to which it is attached. The CTE mismatch between Kovar lead frames and lead-free solder is approximately 16 ppm/C. Although local CTE mismatches may be relatively large, their effects are small compared to those of global CTE mismatches, due to the fact that the stress-causing distortion is proportional to the length of the material, and bond lengths are typically small compared to component lengths. The challenge for design engineers is to find ways to minimize or relieve stress in order to prevent damage to the assembly.
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