Abstract: A method for controlling the shape and height of solder connections of a surface mount circuit device, such as a flip chip, by way of controlling the manner and extent to which solder is able to flow on a conductor during reflow in order to maximize the distance between adjacent connections. The device is mounted to a circuit board with a conductor pattern defined by a number of conductors, each having a reduced-width portion. A mask is formed on the circuit board to have an opening that exposes a portion of each reduced-width portion, each exposed portion having opposing first and second ends. The device has solder bumps that are staggered so that every other solder bump is registered with a first end of one of the exposed portions, and so that the remaining intervening solder bumps are registered with the opposing second ends of the remaining exposed portions.

Abstract: A method for controlling the height, shape and placement of solder connections of a surface mount circuit device, such as a flip chip, by way of controlling the extent to which solder is able to flow on a conductor during reflow, but without the conventional use of a solder mask in a manner that results in a portion of the mask remaining beneath the device. Each conductor is defined to include a bond pad and a reduced-width portion adjacent the bond pad. The width of each reduced-width portion is sufficiently narrower than the width of its adjacent bond pad to impede the flow of molten solder onto the reduced-width portion from a solder bump registered with the bond pad. As a result, when reflow soldering a circuit device to the circuit board, molten solder substantially remains on the bond pads and, for a given solder bump size, the bond pads determine the shape and height of the resulting solder connections.