Property Evolution and Reliability of Underfills Under Sustained High Temperature Storage

Abstract Automotive underhood electronics may be exposed to high temperature in the neighborhood of 100°C–200°C. Property evolution may impact reliability and accuracy of predictive models to assure desired use life. In this paper, evolution of properties of two underfill material properties are studied using DMA (Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer). The underfills are exposed to three different operational temperatures in the range of 100°C to 140°C for the measurements. The dynamic mechanical properties such as storage modulus (E′), loss modulus (E″), tangent delta (tan δ), and respective glass transition temperatures (Tg) are studied using DMA. Study of viscoelastic behavior of underfills is achieved by performing TTS (time-temperature superposition) experiments at 7 discrete frequencies 0.1, 0.21, 0.46, 1, 2.15, 4.64, and 10 Hz using DMA in three-point bend mode. From the selected reference temperatures, the master curves were constructed for storage moduli, loss moduli and tan delta as a function of frequency using TTS results. Using the WLF (Williams-Landel-Ferry) equation, the shift factors as a function of temperature were determined along the frequency axis. The relaxation modulus as a function of temperature and time can be obtained using the master curves of storage and loss moduli. A simple and detailed procedure has been established to find the Prony series constants.