Technique for Forming Resin-Impregnated Fiberglass Sheets

This invention relates generally to forming of resin-impregnated cloth, and more particularly to forming improved resin-impregnated fiberglass sheets and the resultant sheets which are specially adapted for use in forming chip carriers and the like, and which have improved resistance against plated fiber shorts.

Resin-impregnated fiberglass sheets are commonly used in the formation of printed circuit boards. The fiberglass cloth is typically impregnated with the selected thermoset resin which is then partially cured and the impregnated cloth sheared to form what are known as sticker or prepreg sheets. In order to enhance the adhesion of the resin to the fiberglass, often a coupling agent, such as a silane, is coated onto the surface of the fiberglass prior to impregnation. The prepreg sheets are then laid up with sheets of metal such as copper or copper-invar-copper (CIC) and laminated with heat and pressure to fully cure the laid-up laminate with the metal sheets defining ground, power and signal planes. One of the desirable characteristics of the resin-impregnated fiberglass sheets is that the resin-impregnation must cover the fibers of the fiberglass and must be able to be partially cured to a nontacky state wherein the sheets can be handled for the lamination process. This is often referred to as a B-stage, a cure state which allows the sheets to be sufficiently self-supporting to be laid up as a laminate, but not advanced enough in the state of cure that they are rigid or non-flowable when heated, and they can be further cured to a final cure with heat and pressure to form a laminate structure as is well known in the art. As indicated above, this lamination process normally includes the lamination of one or more sheets of metal, such as copper, CIC or other metal, to provide necessary ground planes, power planes and signal planes buried within the laminated circuit board. Also in conventional practice, openings are formed, either by drilling or other means, through the fully cured laminates which form the openings for vias or plated through holes where the connections can be made from one surface of the circuit board to the other and to the various internal planes within the laminate as required.

A conventional technique of forming the resin-impregnated fiberglass sheets is to provide a coil of the fiberglass material and unwind the fiberglass material from the coil and continuously pass it through a tank containing the solution of the desired resin in a solvent, and then pass the coated or impregnated material through a treater tower wherein heat is applied to drive off the solvent and to partially cure the resin material by initiating cross-linking and then coiling the partially-cured or B staged material into a coil. Thereafter, the partially-cured material is uncoiled and cut into sheets of the desired length. These sheets, known as prepreg sheets, are then used in the lamination process described above.

This prepreg material has long been used for manufacturing circuit boards, however, more recently, the same prepreg material and same laminating techniques that have been used to form a circuit board have been used to form chip carriers. A chip carrier is basically a small-size version of a circuit board where the metallurgy and the lay out can be much finer than on a circuit board. Printed circuit board reliability tests are defined, e.g., in IPC specifications, whereas chip carrier tests are defined by JEDEC specifications which are derived for ceramic carriers and are more severe tests. In addition, because of the finer geometry of the metallurgy and the lay-out, chip carriers are more prone to failure from various failure mechanisms. Moreover, JEDEC standards require much more severe testing conditions for chip carriers. For example, one of the circuit board IPC standard testing conditions is at 50.degree. C., 80% relative humidity with a bias (50.degree. C./80%RH/15V/300 Hrs.). In contradistinction to this, the conventional JEDEC THB (temperature/humidity/bias/1000 hrs.) test for chip carriers is 85.degree. C./85%RH/BIAS. In some cases, a JEDEC standard HAST (highly accelerated stress test) is required for chip carriers, which conditions are 130.degree. C./85%RH/BIAS/100 hrs. The bias in all cases typically is the rated voltage design of the part plus 10%. Under these severe testing conditions, parts are prone to fail in a relatively short time if there are any of certain types of defects.

One particular sort of defect developed and detected by the THB and HAST tests is a so-called plated fiber short or CAF (cathodic anodic filament) which occurs due to electro-migration. Essentially, a plated fiber short results from the formation of a path along a glass fiber from one conducting component to another, e.g., from a plated through hole to a power or ground plane, or between two plated through holes or two planes. There are four elements required to establish this plated fiber short as follows: (1) a path; (2) ions along the path; (3) moisture; and (4) bias. Since the testing conditions provide both the moisture in the form of high relative humidity and bias in the form of applied voltage, if a path is formed within the fiberglass prepreg and there are ions in the path, the defect will occur and be revealed by the test. Since processing conditions inherently provide ions, and further since the humidity can provide oxidation of the copper or other metal to provide ions, it is very difficult to avoid there being ions within a path. Thus, the critical feature to provide against is the formation of the path along the glass fibers.

It has been found that as long as the resin completely encapsulates the glass fiber and firmly adheres thereto, the formation of a path can be effectively prevented or at least greatly minimized. However, with conventional coating techniques for forming the impregnation, there can be what is known as "dewet" fibers. In such a case, the fibers do not adequately adhere to the resin encapsulating the fibers allowing a path to be formed. This dewetting can take place during impregnation and turn into striations during the lamination process. The void along the glass fiber path where it has been dewet serves as a nucleation point for path formation between the conductors.

A second mechanism for path formation is caused during lamination. Glass fibers in some cases are pressed through the surrounding matrix resin against the metal surfaces of the ground planes or signal planes, or power planes, thus forming a direct contact. This defect can grow a path toward either the plated through holes or other metal plane causing the defect. Moreover, these defects can be aggravated by drilling (which can form micro cracks), high lamination pressure (which can cause resin displacement), many and/or large clearance openings (which can cause resin displacement into the clearance openings), stresses due to thermal cycling after moisture soaking, and many others. Under THB testing and especially HAST testing, these defects are identified and are, in many cases, a significant problem.

It is thus an object of the present invention to prevent or at least significantly reduce plated fiber shorts in laminated glass-fiber reinforced structures utilized for chip carriers.

According to the present invention, a method for coating cloth especially fiberglass sheets with a resin and resulting structure is provided. The coating is performed in two steps. In the first step, essentially all of the strands of the fiberglass are coated with the resin solvent mixture while maintaining the interstices or openings essentially free of the solvent mixture. This first coating is then partially cured to the extent that it will not redissolve in a second coating of the same resin solution. The coated fiberglass with partially cured resin thereon is then given a second coating of the same resin mixture which coats the first coating and fills in the interstices between the fibers. This second coating is then partially cured, which advances the cure of the first coating and results in an impregnated fiberglass cloth structure for use as sticker sheets. During lamination, the first coating acts like an impenetrable insulating sheet, preventing resin displacement and, therefore, preventing glass fiber contact with the conductive planes. The second coating is fluid enough to fill in spaces in the planes and to form the adhesive bond to cores and conductive layers.

FIG. 1 is a somewhat schematic representation of an apparatus for impregnating fiberglass cloth with resin and partially curing the impregnated fiberglass;

FIG. 2A is a very schematic representation of forming of sheets of partially-cured impregnated resin and copper sheets positioned to form a laminate core structure;

FIG. 2B is a schematic representation view of a portion of a raw core formed from sticker sheets and copper sheets;

FIG. 2C is a schematic representation of a raw core and sticker sheets and copper sheets positioned to be laminated and form a chip carrier;

FIG. 2D is a schematic representation of a chip carrier;

FIG. 3 is a view on an enlarged scale of the portion of woven fiberglass cloth before coating according to this invention;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane designated by the line 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 3 after the initial coating of the fiberglass cloth with a resin and partially cured according to this invention;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane designed by line 6--6 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIGS. 3 and 5 after a second coating of resin has been placed over the first coating of the fiberglass cloth; and

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the plane designated by the line 8--8 of FIG. 7.

Referring now to the drawings, and for the present to FIG. 1, a somewhat schematic representation of coating of the fiberglass cloth with resin/solvent solution and partially curing the resin is shown. A roll of fiberglass cloth 10 is shown which passes over a guide roll 12 into a solution 14 of the desired resin maintained in a selected solvent. (It is to be understood that the term "solution" is used here to describe the resin in a solvent, whether or not it be a true solution.) The solution 14 is maintained in a tank 16, and the fiberglass cloth from the roll 10 is maintained submerged in the tank by a pair of sink rolls 18. The fiberglass from the roll of fiberglass cloth 10 is passed through the solution 14 into a treater tower 20. The solution impregnates the fiberglass cloth 10 with the resin/solvent solution. The amount of resin on the cloth is usually controlled by metering rolls 19.

The treater tower 20 has a series of rolls 24 over which the fiberglass cloth 10 is reeved, and the treater tower 20 is heated, either by convection or by radiation, such as infrared radiation or by microwave, or by some other mechanism to drive the solvent from the solution and to partially cure the resin by initiating the cross-linking. The tower 20 is divided into several zones in which the temperature and the gas flow can be controlled independently. The exiting material, known as prepreg, now is comprised of glass cloth and partially reacted resin and is largely free of solvent. This state of the material is known as a B-stage, and the amount of curing required for the B-stage is well known in the art. Specifically, this B-staged resin is sufficiently cured to form a sheet of material which has the resin in such a form that it will remain in the fiberglass material and is sufficiently uncured that it can bond to other similar sheets of material and to metal sheets and be further cured to a hardened state upon application of heat and pressure. The amount of resin applied to the sheet is a function of the nature of the fiberglass cloth 10, as well as the speed of the travel of the fiberglass cloth 10, setting of the metering rolls 19, the composition of the solution of resin and solvent 14, and various physical parameters such as the temperature, viscosity and other well known factors of the solution. Likewise, the amount of cure is a function of the temperature of the tower, the amount of solution and resin applied to the fiberglass cloth, the composition of the solution and the composition of the resin, all of which also are well known in the art. The fiberglass cloth 10 as it emerges from the treater tower 20 in the B-stage state is wound into a coil of partially-cured material 26.

In conventional practice, a single pass of the fiberglass cloth 10 through the solution 14 and the treater tower 20 is used. The partially-cured fiberglass is then ready to be uncoiled and cut into sheets often referred to as prepreg sheets for forming a laminated structure.

In order to form a chip carrier or a circuit board, alternate layers of B-stage cured prepreg sheets and sheets of conductive material such as copper or copper-invar-copper (CIC) as shown in FIG. 2A are laminated together. In one typical lamination process, one or more, and conventionally two, sheets of prepreg 30a, 30b are laminated between two sheets of copper or CIC 31a, 31b using heat and pressure to form a raw core 32 (FIG. 2B). (Because of the heat and pressure, the two sheets of prepreg 30a, 30b bond together to form an essentially continuous or single layer, and bond to the two sheets of CIC 31a and 31b. The sheets of prepreg 30a, 30b are essentially fully cured as shown in FIG. 2B with a dotted line indicating their interface.

This raw core can, in the simplest embodiment, be circuitized to form a chip carrier or circuit board. Using photolithographic and drilling techniques, the sheets 31a and 31b are circuitized to form the desired circuitry on both sides of the prepreg sheets 30a and 30b and plated through holes formed where needed.

In other embodiments, the core 32 is used to form buried planes such as ground planes and power planes, or even signal planes. As shown in FIG. 2C, two additional sheets of prepreg 33a and 33b are laminated to sheet 31a and to a sheet of copper 34a and two additional sheets of prepreg 33c and 33d are laminated to sheet 31b and sheet of copper 34b and essentially fully cured by heat and pressure. These sheets, ready for lamination, are shown in FIG. 2C. Copper sheets 34a and 34b are used to form circuit traces 35a and 35b by subtractive etching. Plated through holes 35c are formed in a conventional manner as shown in FIG. 2D. These raw cores and completed circuit boards or chip carriers are well known in the art as are the various techniques for forming them, and thus they are only briefly described.

The above-described techniques are well known in the art. According to conventional prior art techniques, the impregnation of the fiberglass with the resin/solvent solution followed by the B-stage is done in a single step, wherein the desired amount of resin is applied and cured, and the sheets are then uncoiled and formed into sticker sheets after the single impregnation and B-stage step. However, in the formation of a chip carrier, the THB testing and HAST testing described above has indicated significant number of plated fiber shorts, thus necessitating scrapping of a substantial amount of the final product.

According to the present invention, the impregnating and partial curing of the resin into the fiberglass sheet is accomplished in two steps; i.e., two separate coating and partial curing operations are performed on a roll of fiberglass material. During the first pass, the solution concentration, temperature and viscosity of the solution of resin, as well as the speed of travel of the strip of material 26, are selected such that as fiberglass cloth passes through the solution, the solution coats only the fibers and does not coat the interstices or spaces or windows between the fiber bundles. The material with this first coating thereon passes through the treater tower 20 and is partially cured in a conventional manner, but to a higher B-stage. This is shown schematically in FIGS. 3-6. FIGS. 3 and 4 show a small section of woven fiberglass cloth before coating. The cloth has bundles of woof fibers 36 and bundles of warp fibers 38 which are woven in a conventional way to form interstices or windows 40. The glass may have an adhesion-promoting coating, such as a silane (not shown) thereon. After the first pass and partial cure, the resin material forms a coating 42 of partially-cured resin over the fibers 36 and 38, while leaving the windows 40 essentially free of resin. This is shown schematically in FIGS. 5 and 6. The first pass coating must be sufficiently cured that it will not redissolve in the resin solution of the second pass. The fiberglass, coated and B-staged, is left in the coil form and is then given a second pass through a solution 14 of the same resin and solvent. The resin solution during the second pass coats not only over the coating 42 on the fibers 36 and 38, but also fills in the windows 40 to form an outer coating 44.

Since the fiberglass cloth on the second pass is also passed through the treater tower 20, the outer coating is partially cured to a B-stage, while the heat advances the cure of the inner coating 42, but does not fully cure it. The second coating 44 forms a bond with the coating 42 on the fibers 36 and 38 during the partial cure. This condition is shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. It should be understood, however, that the sharp demarkation between the first and second layers shown in FIG. 8 is for the purpose of illustration, and that the transition between these layers is smooth and such that the two layers are substantially continuous; i.e., the bonding and cross-linking of the polymer results in essentially a continuous film of polymer formed of two layers. However, before final cure during lamination, the two different layers are discernable, but with a smooth transition.

It should be understood that the second coating procedure could be performed on a second coating line in a continuous manner following the emergence of the partially cured cloth from the treater tower 20 after the first coating, thus obviating the necessity of coiling and recoating in the same line.

After the second coating process wherein the outer coating 44 is applied and partially cured, the sheets are then cut and lamination takes place in a conventional manner. The further curing during lamination finishes the bonding process of the outer coating 44 to the inner coating 42, making a strong adherent structure.

The specific resins used can vary, as long as the resin has the properties of being able to be coated from a solution, aqueous or solvent, and partially cured, and in the first coating to adhere only to the fibers and leave the windows open. Particularly useful resins are epoxy resins, such as XU8213 sold by Ciba-Geigy Company, which are well known in the art, and also bismaleimide triazine (BT) which can be used alone, or which is preferably blended with epoxy. This blend when blended with epoxy would be a 60/40 or 50/50 BT:epoxy. The BT/epoxy blend has a particularly good adherence to glass thus forming a good interface and encapsulating the glass fibers during the first pass. If epoxy alone is used, epoxy has a particularly good interface to copper. Other useful resins include polyimides and cyanate esters, and mixtures of cyanate esters and epoxies. In any event, the same resin that is used for the first pass is used for the second pass, with the loading, viscosity, temperature and speed of the fiberglass cloth being adjusted in each pass to provide, during the first pass, the coating of the fibers and, during the second pass, the coating of the already coated fibers and filling in of the windows.

The following table is an example of a procedure and parameters and materials used to form a roll of epoxy fiberglass impregnated utilizing two passes according to this invention compared with a procedure and parameters and materials typically used in a single pass prior art technique.

As can be seen from the table above, many of the parameters are the same for both the first pass and the second pass in the present invention. Also, many of the parameters are the same for the second pass of the present invention and the prior art single pass. The main differences are in the line speed and the temperatures of the oven zones on the first pass as compared to the prior art single pass technique. The line speed is significantly slowed down, and the oven temperatures increased somewhat in some of the zones. The slowing down of the line speed results in less resin being impregnated into the cloth than at a faster line speed. This is because during the slow line speed on the vertical run of the cloth as it is coming out of the resin solution, it has more time to drain and, thus, more of the resin which has been coated onto it drains off back into the solution 14 of the resin. The higher temperature in the oven, coupled with the slower speed results in a more complete cure of the first pass resin than is achieved with the prior art single pass technique; i.e., in the prior art single pass technique, the cure for B-stage is 20-45%, whereas after the first pass of the two pass technique according to the present invention, there is about a 70% complete cure. This additional cure is desired to insure that, during the second pass of the present invention, the resin deposited on the first pass and partially cured does not redissolve, but rather remains as a base on which the second pass resin is deposited. Thus, the slower speed and higher temperatures in certain zones of the oven result in a more fully cured resin, coating essentially the fibers and leaving significant spaces at the interstices which are then covered and fully filled in during the second pass wherein the parameters are preferably about the same as the parameters for a single pass technique. Other modifications such as change in viscosity, change in percentage of resin, etc., can be used to vary the coating weight.

It should be understood that the particular table of parameters is merely illustrative and that these can be varied significantly to obtain the desired results. For example, other cloth styles could be used. Typically, these cloths can include Grade 106, 2116 or 7628, as well as others which are suitable for resin impregnation. In addition, other cloths based on quartz, s-glass or organic fibers can be used. With these other types of cloth, the parameters or conditions of coating on the two passes are modified to obtain the desired results. Also, other resins can be used, as was explained above, which would cause the conditions to be changed, all of which is well-known in the art.

When chip carriers have been formed utilizing glass impregnated according to this invention, and particularly as described in the above example, superior results have been achieved when tested using the THB and HAST testing, as opposed to fiberglass coated using conventional single-pass techniques.

The invention has been described as used with woven glass fiber; however, non-woven fiberglass fabric can also be used even though the interstices are not as pronounced as in woven fabric.

Also, the invention is particularly useful for forming chip carriers where the test requirements are stringent. However, the invention can be used in forming circuit boards if the testing indicates this additional cost is justified.

Accordingly, the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described. With the foregoing description in mind, however, it is understood that this description is made only by way of example, that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, and that various rearrangements, modifications, and substitutions may be implemented without departing from the true spirit of the invention as hereinafter claimed.