Samsung Electronics has officially started the development of a low-temperature solder technology to be used in next-generation high-tech packaging. The company plans to complete it by 2025 and apply it to the mass production process.
What is Solder Technology?
In general, Solder Technology provides a cost-effective means for attaching electronic packages to circuit boards using both small scale and large scale manufacturing processes.
How low-temperature solder will perform?
Solder is basically used to combine the package substrate and the semiconductor chip die (Integrated circuit). Normally, a conventional solder requires a high temperature of 200°C or higher, but using low-temperature solder can reduce packaging process costs and defect rates.
According to the information, the material that Samsung Electronics is looking to use as a low-temperature solder material is Bi (bismuth). Chief Joo explained that the key point of this technology development is to develop a Bi-based solder and improve the physical properties of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solder, which is currently mainly used in the packaging process.
At the 2023 Annual Meeting of the Korean Society of Microelectronics and Packaging held at the Suwon Convention Center in Gwanggyo, Suwon on the 5th, Joo Gun-mo, chief of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, said, “It is expected that mass production of low-temperature solder will be applied in 2025.” It is not necessary,” he said.
Low-temperature solder is a material applied when soldering is performed at a low temperature unlike traditional solder, and refers to a material that can be soldered at a temperature of 150 ° C or lower.
Current leaders in low-temperature solder research are Lenovo and Intel. Lenovo is mass-producing low-temperature solder to its products, and Intel has been conducting research on low-temperature solder with Ibiden, Sinko Electric, and AT&S through iNEMI since 2016.
Chief Joo said, “Samsung has developed a next-generation low-temperature solder that has 92.1% of the properties of the existing SAC solder.” We are aiming for,” he said.
“(When applying low-temperature solder), the cost of materials used in the packaging process can be reduced by up to 40%,” said Joo. It can also be reduced,” he said.
“Mass production using low-temperature solder is expected to begin around 2025,” he said. “We are working hard to develop environmentally friendly and meaningful technologies.”
