2009 News Archive

With all the talk of halogen-free in the electronics industry these days, it’s hard to believe that there is actually no official halogen-free legislation – yet. While environmental activist groups such as Greenpeace initially pushed the effort to eliminate brominated flame retardants (BFRs), many electronics manufacturers have also jumped feet first into the halogen-free initiative. The fact is that while some BFRs -- namely polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) -- are harmful, not all BFRs represent health or safety risks.

As the industry has driven toward smaller and smaller devices, thermal management has become an even more challenging proposition. These miniaturized packages, of course, aren’t just smaller form factor, but are also highly functioning, which generates more heat.

Though much of the focus in the IC packaging market throughout 2009 was largely centered on removing supply chain costs, the current recovery will likely be more about advances in IC package design and manufacture rather than cost reduction. Clearly, a rebound from the Q4 2008 – Q1 2009 recessionary low point is happening throughout a wide range of market sectors, but some applications and market segments are seeing a faster acceleration than others.

Building on its successful lead-free solder products portfolio, Henkel has developed Multicore LF730, a Pb-free solder paste born from the company’s unyielding innovation commitment and arguably setting the benchmark for lead-free paste performance.

Henkel Corporation’s electronics group has signed on two new representatives to support its sales initiatives in Northern California and the Texas/Oklahoma region.   The firms, Moore Integrated Technologies and The NiMar Group, respectively, are both managed by industry professionals with a long and successful history in the electronics marketplace, thus upholding Henkel’s pledge to enable its customers’ success through expert, local and accessible sales support.

Heat-sensitive devices are prevalent in a wide variety of electronics products including image sensors, touch panels in Smartphones, PDAs, laptops, TVs and all types of LCD panels, among others.

Today, the Shareholders' Committee of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA elected Simone Bagel-Trah as its new Chairwoman. Bagel-Trah takes over this office from Albrecht Woeste who has been a member of the committee since 1976 and became its Chairman in 1990. This coming Tuesday, Simone Bagel-Trah is also due to be elected Chair of Henkel's Supervisory Board. This completes the transition from the fourth generation of the Henkel family to the fifth. The change at the top of these two supervisory bodies had already been announced at the Henkel Annual General Meeting of spring 2008.

Henkel Corporation today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has allowed a patent covering its Ablestik Self-Filleting die attach products and controlled flow technique, which have been designed and perfected by the company over the past five years.

When it comes to die attach thermal performance, this is a question that has kept materials developers up at night. Historically, when evaluating the thermal performance of a die attach material, a well-known method called laser flash is what has commonly been employed. And, while this test technique reveals the bulk thermal conductivity for a given material, it lacks meaningful data regarding how the die attach system is really going to perform in package.

In a breakthrough for emerging package-on-package (POP) device processes, Henkel has developed Multicore TFN700B, a new no-clean, halide-free tacky flux material formulated specifically for today's challenging POP applications.

While lead-free processes now seem like yesterday’s news and the electronics industry at large has generally accepted and commonly uses the SnAgCu (SAC) alloy, there are still market sectors that have struggled with prevailing SAC formulations. While the SAC alloy has proven to be a worthy lead-free material for the production of numerous devices, those applications that require high operating temperature performance and extremely high reliability have not had tremendous success with traditional SAC materials.

Technology advance has continued to force the development of newer, better performing underfill systems to enhance the reliability of increasingly smaller devices. Manufacturers not only want materials that perform well, but that are also cost-efficient and easily processed. There have been many attempts to satisfy all of these requirements – some successful for certain applications and some not really on the mark.

Though signs of economic recovery are slowly becoming more visible, the effects of the last 18 months will arguably be felt for some time as the electronics industry begins to emerge from the downturn. While the shape of the recovery is still somewhat uncertain, what is clear is that those companies that stayed the course and remained committed to their technology roadmaps will be well-positioned for growth when market strength returns.

Everyone wants more for less – especially today. Consumers want less costly products that deliver greater functionality. In turn, electronics manufacturing firms then demand products that achieve high performance but help reduce their overall costs. It’s not a new twist, but one that is even more profound today as assembly specialists seek to significantly reduce overall costs, yet still be environmentally responsible while turning out high-quality products that consumers will buy.

The current economic climate, though challenging, certainly hasn't deterred the technology specialists at Henkel from continuing on an aggressive R&D path. As evidenced by an impressive five award wins during last week's APEX show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Henkel's commitment to innovation and materials advance is stronger than ever.

In a remarkable breakthrough for underfill materials development, Henkel has engineered and launched a new underfill system that delivers on an unprecedented array of complex and demanding requirements, including room temperature fast flow, low temperature cure and reworkability. The new material, Hysol UF3800, has been specifically designed for use with today's CSP and BGA devices and is particularly well-suited for handheld communication and entertainment applications.

With the majority of the electronics industry fully on board with lead-free manufacturing, solder paste materials requirements are now moving beyond basic functionality and toward more advanced, truly enabling capabilities. Addressing these needs, Henkel has engineered Multicore LF700, a new lead-free, halide-free solder paste that has been formulated to deliver a wider range of benefits and performance characteristics than older-generation and competitive products.

Though the majority of assemblers are using Type 3 solder paste for most of today’s mainstream applications, the prevalence of finer-pitched devices is growing. With 01005s and 0.3mm CSPs showing up in more and more assemblies, use of Type 4 solder paste will soon rival that of Type 3.

The benefits of flip chip technology for advanced device applications have been well proven. With advantages such as more efficient electrical interconnections, smaller device footprints and increased I/O counts, flip chip technology has gained favor among package designers and electronic product OEMs in recent years. While the reliability of flip chips in smaller footprint packages such as BGAs, CSPs and the like has been established, large die (20 mm and above) flip chips for applications such as ASICs, video chips and microprocessors are subjected to more stress.

Henkel employees were saddened to learn of the passing of Emerson & Cuming Co-founder Mr. William Cuming, who died of pneumonia on May 28, 2009. He was 88 years old.

Without question, adhesive materials make electronics production possible, particularly when it comes to semiconductor packaging. Of all of the adhesive technologies employed in the market, epoxy adhesives are likely the most common material for die to substrate or die to die bonding. As devices have become more miniaturized with higher functionality, however, the corresponding requirement for larger, thinner die has challenged older-generation die attach adhesive materials, forcing packaging specialists to seek alternatives.

If you’ve been in electronics for any length of time, the phenomenon of tin whiskers is something you’ve likely heard discussed (maybe in scared whispered tones). Tin whiskers certainly aren’t a new problem. In fact, some of the first published reports of the occurrence date back to the 1940’s and 1950’s. But, over half a century later, we’re still talking about it.