Title: Failure study of micron-sized flip-chip joints on passive RFID tags

Authors: Z.Y. Wang, M.S. Islam, L.H. Dong, Y.H. Dong

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Howard Hughes College of Engineering, 4505 S Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4027, USA. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Howard Hughes College of Engineering, 4505 S Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4027, USA. ' College of Material Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, China. ' College of Material Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, China

Abstract: As a highly precision product, passive RFID tag joints are usually in the size of 50-150 μm. Their natural frequencies play a significant role in long-term tag life and read distance. When the first fundamental natural frequency falls from kilo Hertz to hundred Hertz range, RFID tags experience extremely short product life and poor reading distance due to rapid flip-chip joint failure. This research conducts experimental and theoretical studies on passive RFID tags and found out a gap between the two, with about 110 Hz for experimental results and 13.27 kHz for the theoretical study. Micron sized anisotropic conductive paste/film (ACP/ACF) used to glue the chip and antenna together is believed to be the main reason causing the difference in experimental and theoretical results of the first fundamental natural frequency of RFID tags.

Keywords: micron-sized joint failure; precision assembly; RFID tags; tag assembly; vibration; flip-chip joints.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPTECH.2011.038111

International Journal of Precision Technology, 2011 Vol.2 No.1, pp.81 - 92

Published online: 18 Jan 2011 *

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