Device plastic encapsulants improvements

Over 95% of all the microcircuits made are packaged in plastic, usually a transfer moulded epoxy resin. Changes in packaging technology will occur away from the familiar PDIP (plastic dual-in-line package) to smaller SOT or chip carrier formats but plastics will continue to be the dominant packaging material for cost reasons. At the same time there is a need to improve the reliability of plastic encapsulated devices (PEDs) as they find further use in professional and certain military applications. 

A novel method of improving the reliability of plastic packaged semiconductor devices has been developed. One of the major causes of failure in such devices is corrosion due to moisture permeating through the encapsulant, transporting small amounts of ionic impurity and condensing at the chip surface to form an aggressive electrolyte. 

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