SBIR Phase II: A Novel Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold (ENIG) Surface Finish for Better Reliability of Electronic Assemblies

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将扩大开发环保、经济高效的新型化学镀镍浸金(ENIG)表面处理，具有高耐腐蚀性和坚固的焊点，以提高电子组件的可靠性。目前市场上的常规ENIG容易出现与焊料去湿相关的黑色焊盘缺陷(与超腐蚀相关的故障)。Enig还患有脆性焊点故障。由于这些原因，电子组件存在现场故障和可靠性问题--组件断开导致电子组件的整体故障。此外，大多数ENIG制造商/供应商提供的氰化物基金化学物质对健康和生态都有危害。新型的ENIG消除了与黑色焊盘腐蚀相关的问题，实现了坚固的焊点，并提高了电子组装的质量和可靠性。此外，它采用无氰化物化学浸金工艺，使其更环保。这使制造商能够消费环保产品，同时避免重大现场故障和由此产生的后果。这项新技术将成为现有ENIG的潜在替代品(市场价值约为20-30亿美元/年)。该项目的主要重点是消除与黑板相关的故障，并为电子组件提供坚固、高质量和可靠的焊点。黑色焊盘缺陷的根本原因已被确定为金和镍-磷界面的过度腐蚀活动，这涉及到镍的贫化和局部区域磷的富集性。在第一阶段中，使用了界面工程方法，通过显著提高耐腐蚀性，成功地消除了黑色衬垫。这导致了坚固的焊点和消除了脆性故障。在第二阶段，重点将是扩大开发，优化产品/化学物质，并进行进一步的可靠性测试。主要目标将是将新型ENIG迅速商业化进入市场。这将包括开发补充溶液的化学/工艺参数，使其为市场做好准备，为客户提供经济和高效的产品，进一步进行化学测试以确保质量合规性(保质期、质量标准等)。以及可靠性测试。可靠性测试将涉及真实世界场景和各种基于行业标准的测试，包括跌落和振动测试以及延长热暴露条件下的焊球剪切和拉力测试。

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will scale-up development of eco-friendly, cost-effective novel Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG) surface finish with high corrosion resistance and robust solder joints for better reliability of electronic assemblies. Conventional ENIG currently available in the market is prone to black-pad defects (hyper-corrosion related failures) associated with de-wetting of solder. ENIG also suffers from brittle solder joint failures. Due to these reasons, there are field failures and reliability concerns of electronic assemblies - component disconnection which lead to overall malfunction of electronic assemblies. Moreover, most ENIG manufacturers/suppliers provide cyanide-based gold chemistry which has health and ecological hazards. The novel ENIG eliminates black pads- corrosion related issues, achieves robust solder joints and provides improved quality and reliability of electronic assembly. Also, it uses cyanide-free chemistry for immersion gold process making it eco-friendly. This allows manufacturers to consume eco-friendly product while avoiding major field failures and resulting consequences. This new technology would be potential replacement for existing ENIG (with market value roughly about 2-3 billion USD/year). The primary focus of the project is to eliminate black-pad related failures and lead to robust, high quality and reliable solder joints for electronic assemblies. The root cause of black-pad defects has been identified as hyper corrosion activity at gold and nickel-phosphorous interface which involves nickel depletion and an enrichment of phosphorous in localized areas. During Phase I, interfacial engineering approach had been used to successfully eliminate black pads by achieving marked improvement in corrosion resistance. This has led to robust solder joints and elimination of brittle failures. In Phase II, the focus will be to scale-up development, optimize the product/chemistries and carry out further reliability testing. The main goal would be the rapid commercialization of novel ENIG into the market. This will involve development of the chemistries/process parameters for replenishing solution to make it market ready, economical and efficient for customers, further chemical testing for quality compliance (shelf life, quality standards, etc.) as well as reliability testing. Reliability testing will involve real world scenarios and various industry standard based testing including drop and vibration tests and solder ball shear and pull tests at extended thermal exposures.