Abstract: An integrated circuit assembly (16) embodied as flip-chip is encased in a plastic card (12) to form a smart card assembly (10). The flip-chip assembly has a substrate (20) with plated pads, and a semiconductor die (30) with contacts (32) to be connected to the plated pads on the substrate. An adhesive (38) is applied at selected locations less than an entire surface area between the substrate and the die for maintaining a fixed positional relationship between the substrate and the die. The selected locations, typically dots or a bead inside or around the perimeter of the die, have detrimental stress induced by differences in coefficients of thermal expansion between the die and the substrate before the contacts of the die are connected to the plated pads of the substrate during a reflow or cure process.