Numerical study of ductile failure morphology in solder joints under fast loading conditions

A numerical study is undertaken to investigate solder joint failure under fast loading conditions. The finite element model assumes a lap-shear testing configuration, where the solder joint is bonded to two copper substrates. A progressive ductile damage model is incorporated into the rate-dependent elastic-viscoplastic response of the tin (Sn)–silver (Ag)–copper (Cu) solder alloy, resulting in the capability of simulating damage evolution leading to eventual failure through crack formation. Attention is devoted to deformation under relative high strain rates (1–100 s⁻¹), mimicking those frequently encountered in drop and impact loading of the solder points. The effects of applied strain rate and loading mode on the overall ductility and failure pattern are specifically investigated. It is found that, under shear loading, the solder joint can actually become more ductile as the applied strain rate increases, which is due to the alteration of the crack path. Failure of the solder is very sensitive to the deformation mode, with a superimposed tension or compression on shear easily changing the crack path and tending to reduce the solder joint ductility.     

Maximum entropy fracture model and its use for predicting cyclic hysteresis in Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu and Sn3.0Ag0.5 solder alloys

Appropriate constitutive, damage accumulation and fracture models are critical to accurate life predictions. In this study, we utilize the maximum entropy fracture model (MEFM) to predict and validate cyclic hysteresis in Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu and Sn3.0Ag0.5 solder alloys through a damage enhanced Anand viscoplasticity model. MEFM is a single-parameter, information theory inspired model that aims to provide the best estimate for accumulated damage at a material point in ductile solids in the absence of detailed microstructural information. Using the developed model, we predict the load drop during cyclic fatigue testing of the two chosen alloys. A custom-built microscale mechanical tester was utilized to carryout isothermal cyclic fatigue tests on specially designed assemblies. The resultant relationship between load drop and accumulated inelastic dissipation was used to extract the geometry and temperature-independent damage accumulation parameter of the maximum entropy fracture model for each alloy. The damage accumulation relationship is input into the Anand viscoplastic constitutive model, allowing prediction of the stress–strain hysteresis and cyclic load drop. The damage accumulation model is validated by comparing predicted and measured load drops after 55 and 85 cycles respectively for Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu and Sn3.0Ag0.5 solder alloys. The predictions agreed to within 10% and 20% of the experimental observations respectively for the two alloys. The damage enhanced Anand model developed in this study will enable the tracking of crack fronts during finite element simulations of fatigue crack initiation and propagation in complex solder joint geometries.     

Measurement of high electrical current density effects in solder joints

Measuring mechanical implications of high current densities in microelectronic packaging interconnects has always been a challenging goal. Due to small interconnect size this task has typically been accomplished by measuring the change in electrical resistance of the joint. This measurement parameter is global and does not give local mechanical state information. Also, understanding strain evolution in the solder over time is an important step toward developing a damage mechanics model.The real-time, full-field, strain displacement in a eutectic Sn/Pb solder joint during electrical current stressing was measured with Moiré interferometry (Post et al., High sensitivity Moire, Springer, New York, 1994) under in situ conditions. A finite element model simulation for thermal stressing was performed and compared with measured strain. The initial results show that the measured strain was largely due to thermal stressing versus the current density of 1.8 × 10² A/cm². A second Moiré interferometry experiment with thermal control distinguishes deformation of solder joint due to pure current stressing above 5000 A/cm².     

A Study on the Thermal Fatigue Behavior of Solder Joints Under Power Cycling Conditions

Failure mechanisms exposed by environmental accelerating testing methods such as thermal cycling or thermal shock test, may differ from those at service operating conditions. While the device is heated up or cooled down evenly on its external surface during environmental testing, real operating powered devices experience temperature gradients caused by internal local heating, components' different heat dissipation capability, and ambient temperature variation, etc. In this study, a power cycling technique is introduced to better approximate the field operating conditions so as to activate the field failure modes. Power cycling thermal fatigue test is performed with different ball grid array solder joints, that is, lead contained [Sn/37 Pb (SP)] and lead free [Sn/4.0Ag/0.5 Cu (SAC)], and the result is compared. In order to account for the thermal fatigue life behavior discrepancy for different solder joint composition, real time Moire interferometry is applied to measure the global/local thermo-mechanical behavior during power cycling excursion. Effective damage parameter, the total average shear strain, is extracted from the experiment and applied to account for the difference in fatigue life result of two different solders. In addition, amount of experimentally measured total average shear strain is mutually verified with finite element method analysis. It is clear that total average shear strain of a solder joint can be an effective damage parameter to predict thermo-mechanical fatigue life. A physical mechanism in terms of thermal material property of solder joints' is proposed to offer some thoughts to abnormal shear strain behavior that leads to discrepancies in fatigue life of two solders. An importance of power cycling testing method is emphasized for certain package designs.     

Microstructural evolutions of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joints during thermal cycling

Temperature-induced solder joint fatigue is a main reliability concern for aerospace and military industries whose electronic equipment used in the field is required to remain functional under harsh loadings. Due to the RoHS directive which eventually will prevent lead from being utilized in electronic systems, there is a need for a better understanding of lead-free thermomechanical behavior when subjected to temperature variations. As solder joints mechanical properties are dependent of their microstructural characteristics, developing accurate solder joint fatigue models means to correctly capture the microstructural changes that undergo the solder alloy during thermal cycling. This study reports the Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu (SAC305) solder joints microstructural evolution during damaging temperature cycles. Electron BackScatter Diffraction (EBSD) analysis was conducted to assess the SAC305 microstructure corresponding to a specific damage level. Investigated microstructural features included the β-Sn grain size and crystallographic orientation, as well as the grain boundary misorientation and Ag₃Sn intermetallic compound (IMC) size. As-reflowed and damaged components were also mechanically characterized using nanoindentation technique. The microstructural analysis of SAC305 solder joints prior to thermal cycling showed a highly textured microstructure characteristic of hexa-cyclic twinning with two β-Sn morphologies consisting of preferentially orientated macrograins known as Kara's beach ball, along with smaller interlaced grains. The main observation is that recrystallization systematically occurred in SAC305 solder joints during thermal cycling, creating a high population of misoriented grain boundaries leading to intergranular crack initiation and propagation in the high strain regions. The recrystallization process is accompanied with a progressive loss of crystallographic texture and twinning structure. Ag₃Sn IMCs coalescence is another strong indicator of SAC305 solder damage since the bigger and more spaced the IMCs are the less dislocation pinning can prevent recrystallization from occurring.     

Assessment of mechanical reliability of surface mounted capacitor by an accelerated shear fatigue test technique

In this study mechanical reliability of Sn3.5Ag0.75Cu solder joints in SMD capacitors has been investigated. Tensile response of the solder joint with respect to thicknesses and aging conditions was studied by using Cu/SnAgCu/Cu model samples. Isothermal lifetime curves of SMD devices subjected to high strain vibrational loading were obtained by using an ultrasonic fatigue testing set-up. Mechanical reliability and the failure modes of solder joints in the SMD capacitors were found to be highly dependent on the microstructure of the solder and the intermetallic compound layer and the testing temperature. Testing at elevated temperature resulted in a clear change of crack path and fracture mode of the solder joints.     

Solid state intermetallic compound growth between copper and high temperature,tin-rich solders—part II: Modeling

The solder/base metal interfacial chemistry characterizing solder joints impacts the manufacturability and reliability of electronic components. A model was developed to predict the long-term diffusion-controlled growth of interfacial intermetallic compound layers using short-term experimental data. The model included terms for both constant and variable diffusion coefficients. Application of the model was demonstrated using parameter values for 100Sn/Cu system and comparing calculated layer thicknesses with the experimentally observed values. The early time data for the 100Sn/Cu system that were used to predict growth at longer times were characterized using a variable diffusion coefficient that was an empirical function of layer thickness.     

Damage produced in model solder (Sn-37Pb) joints during thermomechanical cycling

The microstructure of solder plays a key role in the reliability of electronic packages. In this study, the cyclic shear deformation experienced by Sn-37Pb solder joints was simulated by thermomechanically cycling model joints between 30°C and 125°C, and the nature of the damage investigated. Most of the developed shear strain was accommodated by the solder adjacent to the interface with the intermetallic layer, and its severity diminished exponentially with distance from the interface. Shear bands formed at this location and within the shear bands, significant microstructural coarsening occurred together with crack initiation on the outer free surface of the solder. Subsequent cycling produced multiple cracking, fragmentation, and macroscopic decohesion, progressing toward the interior of the solder. Secondary cracks initiated from the primary cracks and propagated along colony boundaries in the surface layers of the solder perpendicular to the shear direction. In the interior of the solder, well away from the interface with the intermetallic layer, a limited amount of coarsening occurred. Apart from smoothing of undulations, the intermetallic layer was unaffected.     

Modeling the Rate-Dependent Durability of Reduced-Ag SAC Interconnects for Area Array Packages Under Torsion Loads

Solder durability models frequently focus on the applied strain range; however, the rate of applied loading, or strain rate, is also important. In this study, an approach to incorporate strain rate dependency into durability estimation for solder interconnects is examined. Failure data were collected for SAC105 solder ball grid arrays assembled with SAC305 solder that were subjected to displacement-controlled torsion loads. Strain-rate-dependent (Johnson–Cook model) and strain-rate-independent elastic–plastic properties were used to model the solders in finite-element simulation. Test data were then used to extract damage model constants for the reduced-Ag SAC solder. A generalized Coffin–Manson damage model was used to estimate the durability. The mechanical fatigue durability curve for reduced-silver SAC solder was generated and compared with durability curves for SAC305 and Sn-Pb from the literature.     

Chip Scale Package (CSP) solder joint reliability and modeling

A viscoplastic constitutive model was used to analyze the thermally induced plastic and creep deformation and low cycle fatigue behavior of the solder joints in Chip Scale Packages (CSP) mounted on Printed Circuit Boards (PCB). The time-dependent and time-independent viscoplastic strain rate and plastic hardening work factors of solder material were used in 2-D plane strain finite element models. The viscoplastic strain rate data was fitted to the viscoplastic flow equation. The plastic hardening factors were considered in the evolution equation. A viscoelastic constitutive model was used for molding compound. Finite element models, incorporating the viscoplastic flow and evolution equations for solder and the viscoelastic equations for molding compound, were verified by temperature cycling tests on assembled CSPs. The effect of the cyclic frequency, dwell time, and temperature ramp rate on the response of the viscoplastic deformation was studied for a tapeless Lead-on-Chip (LOC) CSP and a flexible substrate CSP. The ramp rate significantly affects the equivalent stress range in solder joints while a dwell time in excess of 10 min per half cycle does not result in increased strain range. The failure data from the experiments was fitted to the Weibull failure distribution and the Weibull parameters were extracted. After satisfactory correlation between the experiment and the model was observed, the effect of material properties and package design variables on the fatigue life of solder joints in CSPs was investigated and the primary factors affecting solder fatique life were subsequently presented. Furthermore, a simplified model was proposed to predict the solder fatigue life in CSPs.     

A new creep–fatigue life model of lead-free solder joint

Life prediction plays an important role in reliability design of electronic product. Solder joint failure is one of the most common failure modes for electronic packaging structure. Current creep–fatigue life models of solder joints are unable to distinguish the creep damage and fatigue damage. In this work, a new creep–fatigue life model was proposed for solder joint tested under high strain rate, where the creep damage was based on Monkman–Grant equation and the fatigue damage was evaluated employing the Coffin–Manson model. Then, linear damage rule was utilized to build the new model. Creep test, fatigue test and creep–fatigue test were conducted respectively in order to determine the parameter in the new model. At last, the experimental result was compared with the predicted result, which shows that the calculation life meets well with the experimental life under high strain rate.     

On the Mutual Effect of Viscoplasticity and Interfacial Damage Progression in Interfacial Fracture of Lead-Free Solder Joints

The main goal of this paper is to shed light on the effect of strain rate and viscoplastic deformation of bulk solder on the interfacial failure of lead-free solder joints. For this purpose, interfacial damage evolution and mode I fracture behavior of the joint were evaluated experimentally by performing stable fracture tests at different strain rates employing an optimized tapered double cantilever beam (TDCB) design. The viscoplastic behavior of the solder was characterized in shear, and the constitutive parameters related to the Anand model were determined. A rate-independent cohesive zone damage model was identified to best simulate the interfacial damage progression in the TDCB tests by developing a three-dimensional (3D) finite-element (FE) model and considering the viscoplastic response of the bulk solder. The influence of strain rate on the load capability and failure mode of the joint was clarified by analyzing the experimental and simulation results. It was shown how, at the lower strain rates, the normal stress generated at the interface is limited by the significant creep relaxation developed in the bulk solder and thus is not sufficiently high to initiate interfacial damage, whereas at higher rates, a large amount of the external energy is dissipated into interfacial damage development.     

Ball-grid-array solder joint model for assembly-level impact reliability prediction

It has been well established that lead-free solder underperforms conventional leaded solder in reliability under dynamic impact. Common failures observed on ball-grid-array (BGA) solder balls on chip under board level impact include bulk solder ductile failure, intermetallic (IMC) layer crack and pad-lift. In this work, a finite element modeling approach was proposed to model bulk solder ductile failure and intermetallic layer crack. The use of beam elements and connector elements to represent the bulk solders and board/component side intermetallic layers, respectively, offers the advantage of simplicity over the use of continuum elements and cohesive elements for solder joints. This approach enables the modeling of assembly level impact with significantly less computational resources. The model was verified by comparing its prediction of BGA solder reliability against actual test results in a dynamic four-point bend test. The physical tests consist of ball impact at varying heights on a board with a mounted chip, and the subsequent analysis of the failure modes of the BGA solder joints. Simulation results were in good agreement with test results. The study shows that it is feasible to model BGA solder joint ductile failure and intermetallic layer crack under impact with simple elements with reasonable accuracy.     

Experimental study and life prediction on high cycle vibration fatigue in BGA packages

A technique and loading apparatus have been developed which allow ball grid array (BGA) packages to be visually inspected during high cycle vibration testing. This system provides controls for varying the cycling frequency and magnitude of the applied load. The failures of solder interconnects in BGA specimens were recorded by a direct visual monitoring method. Stroboscopic video was employed to freeze the motion of the vibrating solder interconnects while showing the real-time evolution of failure. In all test cases, BGA interconnect failure was observed to be the result of crack initiation and propagation along the nickel/solder interface. A primary crack developed at one edge of the interconnect and progressed stably until a secondary crack initiated from the opposite edge. The crack growth accelerated until these cracks coalesced, resulting in complete separation of the interconnect. The percentages of time spent in crack initiation, stable propagation and accelerated propagation are, on the order of 15%, 60% and 25%, respectively. Vibration tests at frequencies ranging from 50 to 100 Hz were performed and the number of cycles to failure was found to be frequency-independent in this range.Several commonly used damage mechanics and fracture mechanics fatigue life-prediction models are examined based on failure parameters computed from a nonlinear finite element analysis. It was found that while the damage models examined show large discrepancies between predicted and actual cycles-to-failure, the fracture model correlates with the test data within a factor of 1.5.     

Underfill constraint effects during thermomechanical cycling of flip-chip solder joints

The presence of an “underfill” encapsulant between a microelectronic device and the underlying substrate is known to substantially improve the thermal fatigue life of flip-chip (FC) solder joints, primarily due to load-transfer from the solder to the encapsulant. In this study, a new single joint-shear (SJS) test, which allows the measurement of the strain response of an individual solder ball during thermomechanical cycling (TMC), has been used to investigate the impact of the constraint imposed by the underfill on a solder joint. Finite element (FE) modeling has been used to demonstrate that the SJS sample geometry captures most of the deformation characteristics of an FC joint and to provide insight into experimental observations. It has been shown that the strain response of a eutectic Pb-Sn solder joint is influenced significantly by in-situ microstructural coarsening during TMC, which in turn is dependent on the underfill properties. In general, underfill properties, which allow the imposition of large compressive-hydrostatic stresses on the solder joint, were the most effective in reducing coarsening. Phase coarsening prevented the stabilization of the stress-strain response of the solder, even in the absence of crack damage, and was found to depend strongly on the local inelastic-strain state within the joint. This necessitates that future solder deformation models account for strain-history-dependent microstructural evolution and that underfill properties be optimized to minimize the extent of coarsening during TMC in order to maximize joint life.     

Maximum-Entropy Principle for Modeling Damage and Fracture in Solder Joints

A maximum-entropy fracture model (MEFM) is derived from concepts of information theory and statistical thermodynamics. Exploiting the maximum-entropy principle enables life predictions for a structure in the presence of microstructural uncertainty. This single-parameter model relates the probability of fracture to accumulated entropic dissipation at a given material point. Using J ₂ plasticity and equilibrium thermodynamics, entropic dissipation is related to inelastic dissipation. We demonstrate the MEFM by extracting the single damage accumulation parameter for Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder through cyclical fatigue testing. We then apply the model with the single parameter to numerically predict, in three dimensions, crack initiation and growth in Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder joints of a wafer-level chip-scale package (WLCSP). The simulated crack fronts are validated against experimentally observed crack fronts obtained by testing 64 packages under conditions identical to those used in the simulations. The model is shown to accurately predict the geometrical profile of the observed crack fronts, and the number of cycles corresponding to the observed crack profile to within 10% of the measured number of cycles.     

An experimental approach to characterize rate-dependent failure envelopes and failure site transitions in surface mount assemblies

This paper presents an experimental approach to identify the fatigue failure envelopes for solder damage in Printed Wiring Assemblies (PWAs) subjected to dynamic loading. An empirical, rate-dependent, power-law durability model, motivated by mechanistic considerations, is proposed to characterize the failure envelopes in terms of PWA flexural strain and strain rate, as damage metrics. It is further shown that there are critical combinations of these damage parameters, beyond which the failure site changes from the solder to other locations on the PWA. A case study, using a simple PWA specimen containing a single area array component, is presented to demonstrate the proposed approach. Under certain loading conditions, the failure site changes from the bulk solder to the Cu-trace/FR4 interface. The proposed durability model is shown to successfully describe the solder damage failure envelopes. The concept of a “Failure Map” is shown to provide a suitable framework to quantify the durability of the solder interconnect, determine its failure envelope, and identify the failure transition zone of the specimen. The applicability of the proposed technique for comparing the durability of different packaging styles and for developing design guidelines for PWAs subjected to dynamic loading (for example: drop) is discussed.     

Numerical prediction of mechanical properties of Pb-Sn solder alloys containing antimony, bismuth and or silver ternary trace elements

Solder joint interconnects are mechanical means of structural support for bridging the various electronic components and providing electrical contacts and a thermal path for heat dissipation. The functionality of the electronic device often relies on the structural integrity of the solder. The dimensional stability of solder joints is numerically predicted based on their mechanical properties. Algorithms to model the kinetics of dissolution and subsequent growth of intermetallic from the complete knowledge of a single history of time-temperature-reflow profile, by considering equivalent isothermal time intervals, have been developed. The information for dissolution is derived during the heating cycle of reflow and for the growth process from cooling curve of reflow profile. A simple and quick analysis tool to derive tensile stress-strain maps as a function of the reflow temperature of solder and strain rate has been developed by numerical program. The tensile properties are used in modeling thermal strain, thermal fatigue and to predict the overall fatigue life of solder joints. The numerical analysis of the tensile properties as affected by their composition and rate of testing, has been compiled in this paper. A numerical model using constitutive equation has been developed to evaluate the interfacial fatigue crack growth rate. The model can assess the effect of cooling rate, which depends on the level of strain energy release rate. Increasing cooling rate from normalizing to water-quenching, enhanced the fatigue resistance to interfacial crack growth by up to 50% at low strain energy release rate. The increased cooling rates enhanced the fatigue crack growth resistance by surface roughening at the interface of solder joint. This paper highlights salient features of process modeling. Interfacial intermetallic microstructure is affected by cooling rate and thereby affects the mechanical properties.     

Rate dependent constitutive relations based on Anand model for92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag solder

A rate dependent constitutive model, the Anand model, was applied to represent the inelastic deformation behavior for a Pb-rich solder 92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag used in electronic packaging and surface mount technology. This rate dependent model is a unified viscoplastic constitutive model using an internal state variable, the deformation resistance, to describe the averaged isotropic resistance to macroscopic plastic flow. In order to obtain the acquired data for the fitting of the material parameters of this unified model for 92.5Pb5Sn2.5Ag solder, a series of experiments of constant strain rate test and constant load creep test were conducted under isothermal conditions at different temperatures ranged from -65°C to 250°C. A procedure for the determination of material parameters was proposed in this paper. Model simulations and verifications revealed that there are good agreements between model predictions and experimental data. Moreover, some discussions on using this rate dependent model in the finite element simulation of stress/strain responses of solder joints under thermal fatigue loading were presented     

Solder parameter sensitivity for CSP life-time prediction using simulation-based optimization method

Finite element modeling (FEM) is widely used for estimating the solder joint reliability of electronic packages. However, the solder properties are strongly process and geometry dependent. Even for the same type of solder, measurements conducted by different people at different locations show different results, due to differences in application conditions, benching etc. Those differences may lead to differences in constitutive equations and/or the parameter values. Therefore the effect of the solder parameter variation and parameter sensitivity should be taken into account before a reliable solder fatigue prediction can be made. In this research, a simulation based optimization method is used to investigate the sensitivity of the chosen solder parameters for the solder fatigue prediction using an inelastic strain criterion.