Area array packages (AAPs) with 1.27 mm pitch have been the packages of choice for commercial applications; they are now starting to be implemented for use in military and aerospace applications.  Thermal cycling characteristics of plastic ball grid array (PBGA) and chip scale package (CSP) assemblies, because of their wide usage for commercial applications, have been extensively reported on in literature.  Thermal cycling represents the on-off environmental condition for most electronic products and therefore is a key factor that defines reliability.

However, very limited data is available for thermal cycling behavior of ceramic packages commonly used for the aerospace applications.  For high reliability applications, numerous area array packages are available with the same design pattern both in ceramic and plastic packages.  This paper compares assembly reliability of ceramic and plastic package with the same I/O and pattern.  The ceramic package was in the form of CCGA with 560 I/Os peripheral array with the same pad design as its plastic counterpart.  The effects of the following key parameters on reliability of both CCGA and PBGA assemblies were investigated:  Thermal cycling, corner staking on failure mechanisms, package interchangeability, and heat sink attach on the top of the packages.