Solder ball

For particles in solder paste, see Solder paste § Classification.
A grid array of solder balls under an integrated circuit chip, with the chip removed; the balls were left attached to the printed circuit board.
A MCM schematic for a stacked DRAM dice showing solder balls

In integrated circuit packaging, a solder ball, also a solder bump (often referred to simply as "ball" or "bumps") is a ball of solder that provides the contact between the chip package and the printed circuit board, as well as between stacked packages in multichip modules;[1] in the latter case, they may be referred to as microbumps (μbumps, ubumps), since they are usually significantly smaller than the former. The solder balls can be placed manually or by automated equipment, and are held in place with a tacky flux.[2]

A coined solder ball is a solder ball subject to coining, i.e., flattening to a shape resembling that of a coin, to increase contact reliability.[3]

The ball grid array, chip-scale package, and flip chip packages generally use solder balls.

  1. ^ Definition of: solder ball, PC Magazine glossary
  2. ^ Soldering 101 - A Basic Overview
  3. ^ Patent US 7622325 B2, prior art description