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REVIEW article

Front. Electron.
Sec. Nano- and Microelectronics
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/felec.2024.1515860
This article is part of the Research Topic Advanced Electronic Packaging Materials: Constitutive Model, Simulation, Design and Reliability View all 3 articles

Warpage in Wafer-Level Packaging: A Review of Causes, Evolution, and Modelling Strategies

Provisionally accepted
Pallavi Praful Pallavi Praful *Chris Bailey Chris Bailey
  • Arizona State University, Tempe, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Wafer-level packaging (WLP) is a pivotal semiconductor packaging technology that enables heterogeneously integrated advanced semiconductor packages with high-density electrical interconnections through its efficient and highly reliable manufacturing processes. Within this domain, fan-out wafer-level packaging has gained prominence due to its potential for high integration capacity, scalability, and performance on a smaller footprint. This review examines FOWLP technology and its associated challenges, primarily warpage. As semiconductor companies strive to develop cutting-edge packages, wafer warpage remains an intrinsic and persistent issue affecting yield and reliability at both the wafer and package levels. Warpage characterization techniques and modeling approaches, including theoretical, numerical, and emerging artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) methods, have been analyzed. The structural parameters and properties of the constituent materials of the reconstituted wafer and the FOWLP process have been considered to evaluate the effectiveness of these methods in predicting and analyzing warpage. Potential directions and limitations in warpage prediction and mitigation have been outlined for future research for more reliable and high-performance FOWLP solutions.

    Keywords: FOWLP, Warpage, modelling, Advanced semiconductor packaging, Heterogeneous integration

    Received: 23 Oct 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Praful and Bailey. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Pallavi Praful, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.