Reducing Bonding Temperature and Energy Consumption in Electronic Packaging Using Flash Electro-Thermal Carbon Fiber Heating Elements

[Image: see text] Semiconductor packaging based on an epoxy molding compound (EMC) currently has several disadvantages including warpage, limited processing area, and variability that all negatively affect cost and production yield. We propose a facile EMC molding process method using a flash electro-thermal carbon fiber heating (FE-CH) device based on carbon fiber-based papers to manufacture an EMC molded to a copper substrate (EMC/Cu bi-layer package) via Joule heating, and using this device, a modified cure cycle that combines the conventional cure cycle (CCC) with rapid cooling was performed using FE-CH to reduce the curvature of the EMC/Cu bi-layer package. Compared to the conventional hot press process, which uses 3.17 MW of power, the FE-CH process only uses 32.87 kW, resulting in a power consumption reduction of over 100 times when following the CCC. Furthermore, the FE-CH-cured EMC/Cu bi-layer package exhibits mechanical properties equivalent to those of a hot press-cured specimen, including the degree of cure, elastic modulus, curvature, bonding temperature, residual strain, and peel strength. The modified cure cycle using the FE-CH results in a 31% reduction in residual strain, a 32% reduction in curvature, and a 47% increase in peel strength compared to the CCC, indicating that this new process method is very promising for reducing a semiconductor package’s price by reducing the process cost and warpage.