Determination of epoxy resin type in EMC by pyrolysis-GC and GC/MS

Abstract

Epoxy molding compounds (EMC), generally used plastic molding compound for IC package, are cured material, and are difficult to analyze its composition by typical analytical methods for organics. In this paper, qualitative compositional analysis of EMC was attempted by pyrolysis-GC and pyrolysis-GC/MS. The optimum pyrolysis condition for the composition analysis was determined. At that optimum condition, characteristic peaks for the major components of EMC were obtained from GC-chromatogram of raw materials and cured 3-component model compounds. The chemical structure of each peak was obtained from separate pyrolysis-GC/MS experiments. Using the relative intensity and retention time of the characteristic peaks, identification of epoxy resins commonly used in IC packaging, such as o-cresol novolac, bisphenol, and naphthalene types, was possible. Phenol novolac type of hardener can also be distinguished. However, low concentration components such as the accelerator (<3 phr) were not detected, requiring pre-separation before the analysis.