IC INTERCONNECT OFFERS LEAD-FREE WAFER BUMPING SERVICE

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - August 9, 2005 - IC Interconnect, a wafer bumping service company, announces its lead-free bumping capabilities, available now as a standard service offering.

Reducing harmful substances in the environment, especially at the manufacturing source, has become increasingly important over the last decade. Current RoHS (Restrictions on Hazardous Substances) initiatives mandate that by July 1, 2006, all new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market in European Union member states shall not contain lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium. Much of Asia also agrees to comply with RoHS goals. The United States does not currently have any guidelines, but will be affected since many global manufacturers will make the lead-free transition.

IC Interconnect recognizes these global changes, and now offers bumping services with lead-free solder. "From a wafer bumping standpoint, processing with lead-free alloys required some paste and stencil adaptation. However, the electroless nickel UBM we employ is identical to our lead-based process," explains Dr. Scott Popelar, director of engineering at IC Interconnect. "Both flip chip devices and wafer level chip scale packages have been qualified by several of our customers and are available as standard catalog part numbers in either leaded or lead-free versions."

IC Interconnect has been using electroless nickel as the UBM (under bump metallurgy) of choice since 1998. In 2001, this same UBM system was used in the development and qualification of the lead-free alloys available today. These lead-free alternatives fit into the existing assembly infrastructure, meet cost targets and are equal to or surpass current reliability requirements.

"The most significant concern related to switching from lead-based solder alloys to lead-free was the reliability impact. ICI has processed lead-free die that have subsequently been assembled into electronic systems by our customers and subjected to the standard battery of qualification tests for consumer and automotive applications. In both cases, they exceeded the reliability requirements," says Curt Erickson, president of IC Interconnect.