The invention relates to a carrier for supporting a substrate film during the chip-substrate assembly and bonding process. The carrier provides enhanced rigidity to the substrate film. The degree of rigidity and/or flexibility provided can be controlled by selection of the carrier dimensions, configuration and material choice. Advantages of embodiments of the carrier include easier handling, reduced probability of defective end products, and increased control in choosing the thinness of the substrate film. For example, the substrate film carrier can be used for lead-over-chip (LOC) assemblies and lead-under-chip (LUC) assemblies to create ball grid arrays (BGA), pin grid arrays (PGA), dual in-line packages (DIP), and the like.