Contact resistance and shear strength of the solder joints formed using Cu bumps capped with Sn or Ag/Sn layer

Solder joints were successfully bonded by joining Ag/Sn/Cu bumps and Ag/Sn/Cu layers at 200°C for 30 sec under 20 MPa, 40 MPa, and 80 MPa using thermo-compression bonder. The solder joints were aged at 150°C up to 1000 h. The strength of the solder joints was measured by the shear test and the contact resistance was measured using four-point probe method. The microstructure of the solder joints and the fracture modes after shear test were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with the energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS). Results showed that the electrical resistance of the solder joints decreased, and the shear strength of the solder joints increased after aging treatment. The fracture modes were observed to move from the interfacial failure between solder and intermetallic compounds (IMCs) to the interfacial failure between IMCs. It was considered that the transition of fracture modes was closely related with the microstructure evolution of the solder joints, especially the transformation of IMC phases during the aging treatment.