A high-purity silica was obtained from thermal decomposition of molding resin used as electronic packaging materials. The reaction was performed at high temperature and in oxidizing atmosphere. The product was suitable for reuse as inorganic filler in the production of semiconductor devices, as well as the starting materials in the manufacture of silicon materials. Thermal decomposition kinetics of the electronic packaging material were investigated under various reaction parameters including gas flow rate, sample loading, grain size, oxygen concentration and heating rate by using a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) technique. The results indicated that thermal degradation of electronic packaging material consisted of two distinct reaction stages. The corresponding kinetic parameters including the activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and reaction order in the chemical reaction-controlled region are presented. A mechanism of thermal decomposition was proposed, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.