Patent ID: 7601562

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a microelectronic component assembly, comprising: disposing a microelectronic component carrying a terminal onto a lead frame having a first lead frame member, a second lead frame member spaced apart from the first lead frame member, and a plurality of leads each having an inner length and an outer length; electrically coupling an inner length of one of the leads to the terminal of the microelectronic component; covering the terminal and the inner lengths of each of the leads with a mold compound, leaving the outer length of each of the leads extending outwardly beyond a periphery of the mold compound; interconnecting the exposed lengths of the leads with a dam bar; attaching the dam bar to the first lead frame member by a flexible first dam connector and to the second lead frame member by a flexible second dam connector, at least one of the first and second dam connectors including a flexible transverse length; and permitting the dam bar to move laterally with respect to the first and second lead frame members in response to thermal stresses caused as the mold compound cools from a first temperature to a second temperature.