Realistic characterization and understanding of the mechanical response of materials and interfaces in semiconductor devices such as chip-substrate and packaging are vital for improved and competitive designs in manufacturing. Most of the previously used constitutive models do not account for important factors such as inelastic response, fracture, damage, delamination and degradation under thermomechanical and viscous (creep) effects, in an integrated manner. The objective of the research is to develop a unified modeling approach that will allow incorporation of the above factors in the behavior of both solid materials and interfaces in the semiconductor devices. The models thus developed will be verified with respect to available test results from laboratory measurements. Semiconductor devices are extremely complex systems, often involving interfaces between brittle and ductile materials. Because of the complexity of the system, failures are hard to predict and, therefore, failure-resistant designs are difficult to achieve. The reseach work will develop a much more sophisticated approach to the design of semiconductor devices and packaging than those which are currently available.
