Fracture mechanics analysis of the effect of substrate flexibility on solder joint reliability

Solder joint fatigue failure is a serious reliability concern in area array technologies, such as flip chip and ball grid array packages of integrated-circuit chips. The selection of different substrate materials could affect solder joint thermal fatigue life significantly. The reliability of solder joints in real flip chip assembly with both rigid and compliant substrates was evaluated by the accelerated temperature cycling test and thermal mechanical analysis. The mechanism of substrate flexibility on improving solder joint thermal fatigue lifetime was investigated by fracture mechanics methods. Two different methods (crack tip opening displacement, CTOD and virtual crack closure technique, VCCT) are used to determine the crack tip parameters which are considered as the indices of reliability of solder joints, including the strain energy release rate and phase angle for the different crack lengths and temperatures. It was found that the thermal fatigue lifetime of solder joints in flip chip on flex assembly (FCOF) was much longer than that of flip chip on rigid board assembly (FCOB). The flex substrates could dissipate energy that otherwise would be absorbed by solder joints, that is, substrate flexibility has a great effect on solder joint reliability and the reliability improvement was attributed to flex buckling or bending during thermal cycling.     

Influence of thermal cycling on fatigue strength of Cu/Sn/Cu solder joints

Abstract

The influence of thermal cycling on the fatigue life of Cu/Sn/Cu solder joints has been examined. Copper plates were bonded with tin foil (with a solder thickness of 60 µm) and suffered thermal cycling in a temperature range of 55 or 125 K. Then they were subjected to fatigue testing at a shear stress amplitude of 2 MPa and a frequency of 3.6 Hz. With the increasing number of the thermal cycles, the fatigue life decreased from 3.0×10⁵ to 5.0×10⁴ at thermal cycle 6000. However, the fatigue life did not change so much during thermal cycling in different temperature ranges. When the solder joints suffered the thermal cycling, the η phase at the bonding interface coarsened and elongated, and its arrangement became irregular. After larger numbers of thermal cycles, fine cracks appeared in the η phase parallel to the interface. After fatigue testing, circular patterns were observed inside the bonded region on a fracture surface, and their shape and size became irregular and larger with the increasing number of thermal cycles, respectively. These showed that the reduction in fatigue life was caused by improved propagation of the fatigue crack following changes in the morphology and arrangement of the η phase during thermal cycling.     

Decrease in fatigue life of Sn - 3.8 wt-%Ag - 1.2 wt-%Cu alloy solder joints due to thermal cycling

Abstract

Copper plates joined with a thin solder layer (60 μm thick) of Sn - 3.8 wt-%Ag - 1.2 wt-% Cu alloy were subjected to heat treatments: a thermal cycling of a temperature range between 321 K and 381 K (Δ T = 60 K) and an isothermal heating at 357 K, and then subjected to a fatigue test at 6 MPa stress amplitude. Solder joints made with a thin solder layer of Sn - Pb eutectic alloy were also examined for comparison. After heat treatments, the η phase developed and dispersed at the bonding interface of the solder joints with increasing numbers of thermal cycling and with increasing time of isothermal heating. Small voids also appeared in the η phase after heat treatments. Fine cracks appeared in the η phase after thermal cycling for 2000 cycles and higher, but no cracks were observed after isothermal heating. There was no large difference in fatigue lifetime after thermal cycling between Sn - Ag - Cu alloy solder joints and Sn - Pb eutectic alloy solder joints. The fatigue lifetime of Sn - Ag - Cu alloy solder joints and Sn - Pb eutectic alloy solder joints was 2 - 3 × 105 with no thermal cycling and was greatly reduced to 0.1 - 0.6 × 10⁵ after 8000 thermal cycles. The fatigue lifetime was also decreased to 0.6 - 1.0 × 10⁵ after isothermal heating for 16 000 min, but the decrease in fatigue lifetime was gradual compared to that after thermal cycling. The decrease in fatigue lifetime after smaller numbers of thermal cycles is explained by coarsening of the η phase, and the large decrease in fatigue lifetime after a large number of thermal cycles is explained by the appearance of cracks in the η phase during thermal cycling.     

热循环条件下SnAgCu/Cu焊点金属间化合物生长及焊点失效行为

研究了热循环过程中SnAgCu/Cu焊点界面金属间化合物的生长规律及焊点疲劳失效行为。提出了热循环条件下金属间化合物生长的等效方程以及焊点界面区不均匀体模型,并用有限元模拟的方法分析了热循环条件下焊点界面区的应力应变场分布及焊点失效模式。研究结果表明:低温极限较低的热循环,对应焊点的寿命较低。焊点的失效表现为钎料与金属间化合物的界面失效,且金属间化合物厚度越大,焊点中的累加塑性功密度越大,焊点越容易失效。     

Fatigue failure of pb-free electronic packages under random vibration loads

The electronic equipment are used in several fields like, automotive, aerospace, consumer goods where they are subjected to vibration loads leading to failure of solder joints used in these equipment. This paper presents a methodology to predict the fatigue life of Pb-free surface mounted BGA packages subjected to random vibrations. The dynamic characteristics of the PCB, such as the natural frequencies, mode shapes and damping ratios were determined. Spectrum analysis was used to determine the stress response of the critical solder joint and the cumulative fatigue damage accumulated by the solder joint for a specific duration was determined.     

Fatigue and fracture assessment for reliability in electronics packaging

Modern electronics products relentlessly become more complex, higher in density and speed, and thinner and lighter for greater portability. The package of these products is therefore critical. The reliability of the interconnection of electronics packaging has become a critical issue. In this study, the novel testing methods for electronic packaging are introduced and failure mechanisms of electronic packaging are explained. Electronics packaging is subjected to mechanical vibration and thermal cyclic loads which lead to fatigue crack initiation, propagation and the ultimate fracture of the packaging. A small-sized electromagnetic-type bending cycling tester, a micro-mechanical testing machine, and thermal fatigue testing apparatus were specially developed for the reliability assessment of electronics packaging. The long-term reliability of an electronic component under cyclic bending induced high-cycle fatigue was assessed. The high-cycle bending-fatigue test was performed using an electromagnetic-type testing machine. The time to failure was determined by measuring the changes in resistance. Using the micro-mechanical tester, low cycle fatigues were performed and compared with the results of a finite element analysis to investigate the optimal shape of solder bumps in electronic packaging. Fatigue tests on various lead-free solder materials are discussed. To assess the resistance against thermal loads, pseudo-power cycling method is developed. Thermal fatigue tests of lead-containing and lead-free solder joints of electronic packaging were performed using the pseudo-power cycling tester. The results from the thermal fatigue tests are compared with the mechanical fatigue data in terms of the inelastic energy dissipation per cycle. It was found that the mechanical load has a longer fatigue life than the thermal load at the same inelastic energy dissipation per cycle.     

Critical studies to improve service reliability of Sn–Ag–Cu solder joints by thermal treatments

Lead-free electronic packages intended for use in applications such as aerospace, military, and other highly demanding service conditions, necessitate exceptional mechanical reliability of lead-free electronic solder joints under realistic service conditions. Most current design strategies employed for improving the reliability of lead-free electronic solder joints are aimed at developing suitable alloying additions and reinforcements to the solder itself. At present there exists no suitable methodology to minimize the effects of service conditions while the solder joint is in service. Since thermomechanical fatigue reliability of electronic solder joints is closely related to the crack nucleation that occurs during very early stages of repeated thermal excursions, this study is based on subjecting solder joints to a limited number of thermal shock (TS) cycles in a chosen temperature regime to nucleate cracks, then evaluating their effectiveness in improving reliability when the solder joints are subjected to additional TS cycles in a different temperature regime. This study is a preliminary investigation, aimed at developing suitable methodology to minimize the effects of damage to lead-free solder joint specimens subjected to repeated thermal excursions during service, by imposing appropriate thermal treatments. These thermal treatments can be automatically implemented at programmed intervals during the service life of the electronic packages. Methods employed in these studies may also be useful to enhance long-term service reliability and to obtain a conservative estimate of long-term service reliability.     

Experimental evaluation of creep and fatigue behaviour for microscale solder interconnect

This paper presents a novel experimental study for creep and fatigue of solder‐interconnects in microstructures. The strains are directly measured in the fillet area of solder‐joints with a typical linear dimension of 50 μm. An analytical approach is developed for calculating shear stress based on the shear strain measurement and the established solder constitutive relations. Also obtained is the strain‐rate as well as the separated elastic, plastic and creep components from the measured total strain. The data enables the determination of the strain energy density per temperature cycle for the characterization of the solder joint creep fatigue behaviour. Case studies provide evidence for the shear dominance and the creep fatigue mechanism in thermally induced solder joint deformation in surface‐mounted electronic assemblies. Though a similar trend of variation in stress–strain is found in the joints of different solders, the substantial differences in the hysteresis loop area and shape as well as in the creep rate suggest that the solder constitutive parameters should have a profound impact on the creep fatigue endurance of the joints.     

Thermal cycling test in Sn-Bi and Sn-Bi-Cu solder joints

The eutectic SnBi solder alloy is a candidate for Pb-free replacement of the conventional eutectic SnPb solders. This study presents series of results on the binary eutectic SnBi and ternary SnBi-1 wt % Cu a solder joints. Compositional analysis and wettability of the as-fabricated solder alloys are reported. In addition, microstructure, adhesion strength, fracture surface and contact resistance of the solder joints are also evaluated. The results of the wetting balance show that the addition of 1 wt % Cu has little effect on the contact angle of the eutectic SnBi solder alloy with various metallization layers. The adhesion strength of solder joints degrades abruptly after 2000 thermal cycles. In addition, thermal cycling would result in cracking in the solder joints, which is due to the mismatch in thermal expansion coefficients. Portions of the thermal fatigue cracks nucleate at the edge of the solder fillet, and then propagate along the solder/conductor interface. Some cracks are, however, through the Al₂O₃ substrate. The contact resistance of the solder/Cu joint does not increase after thermal cycling since the resistivity of Cu₆Sn₅ is lower than that of the solder. The solder joints of 42Sn-58Bi/Cu, SnBi-1Cu/Cu, 42Sn-58Bi/PtAg, and SnBi-1Cu/PtAg assemblies maintain their integrity after 2000 thermal cycles since the increase in contact resistance is rather small (ΔR<0.5 mΩ).     

自适应无铅焊料的开发与研究

可靠性是电子工业发展所面临的最大难题.随着对无铅焊料的深入研究,消除金属间化合物对焊点机械性能的不利影响,及解决由于印刷电路板与电子材料间的热膨胀系数不同所产生的、在热循环过程中出现的热疲劳现象,都是提高可靠性的途径.提出了开发自适应无铅焊料解决上述问题,阐述了制备自适应无铅焊料的可行性,并展望了此种焊料的良好应用前景.     

Assessment of Factors Influencing Thermomechanical Fatigue Behavior of Sn-Based Solder Joints under Severe Service Environments

Reliability of solder joints under thermal excursions encountered in service depends on the solder performance during each stage, its extent in each cycle of temperature excursion, and the cumulative effects of the same under repeated thermal cycling. Extent of such field influence, and the resultant damage, will also be significantly affected by the constraints imposed by the solder joint geometry. Any realistic evaluation of the solder joint behavior should account for all of the above with specimen geometry, and thermal excursion stages that are representative of the actual conditions, encountered in service to arrive at meaningful results. Findings based on studies carried out to evaluate the roles of each of these, with specimens possessing same geometry and prepared under the same conditions, indicate the important contributions of each of the service and material parameters, and the solder alloy composition, for reliability considerations.     

Experimental and numerical study on effect of forming process on low‐cycle fatigue behaviour of high‐strength steel

Application of high‐strength steel on different structural components is becoming more attractive. In spite of their great advantages of high yield strength, the use of these steel grades faces some important challenges as well. There are many formed steel components of different structures that are subjected to fatigue loading conditions. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of pre‐bending process of high‐strength steel subjected to low‐cycle fatigue loading conditions. For this purpose, a new test set‐up has been designed to take into consideration the effect of pre‐bending process when the fatigue load is applied. To detect fatigue crack initiation onset, lock‐in thermography technique is used to monitor the incremental temperature variation during fatigue cycling. Furthermore, to estimate fatigue lifetime of the formed fatigue sample, continuum damage mechanics approach is applied by means of numerical modelling.     

Role of anisotropic behaviour of Sn on thermomechanical fatigue and fracture of Sn-based solder joints under thermal excursions

Solder joints experience thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) as a consequence of thermal stresses that arise from coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatches between various entities present in the joint under thermal excursions. Sn present in solder joints made with alloys containing significant amounts of Sn, exists in a body centred tetragonal (BCT) structure, under normally realized thermal excursion regimes encountered during service. BCT Sn exhibits significant anisotropic behaviour in its physical and mechanical properties as a consequence of its highly unusual c/a ratio of about 0.5. Such severe anisotropy causes significant stresses at the Sn grain boundaries present within the solder joints during thermal excursions, resulting in damage accumulation within the solder. Stresses resulting from this anisotropy can be much larger than those that can arise from CTE mismatches between entities such as solder/substrate, solder/intermetallics etc. Damage accumulation under TMF progresses in the severely constrained region of the solder/substrate interface, and causes the initiation and propagation of the catastrophic crack. This crack propagates within the solder in a region very close to the solder/substrate interface and results in the TMF failure of the joint.     

Reliability behavior of lead-free solder joints in electronic components

With more consumer products moving towards environmentally friendly packaging, making solder Pb-free has become an urgent task for electronics assemblies. Solder joints are responsible for both electrical and mechanical connections. Solder joint does not have adequate ductility to ensure the repeated relative displacements due to the mismatch between expansion coefficients of the chip carrier and the circuit board. Materials behavior of solder joints involves a creep–fatigue interaction, making it a poor material for mechanical connections. The reliability of solder joints of electronics components has been found playing a more important role in service for microelectronics components and micro-electro-mechanical systems. So many researchers in the world investigated reliability of solder joints based on finite element simulation and experiments about the electronics devices, such as CR, QFP, QFN, PLCC, BGA, CSP, FCBGA and CCGA, which were reviewed systematically and extensively. Synchronously the investigation on reliability of solder joints was improved further with the high-speed development of lead-free electronic packaging, especially the constitutive equations and the fatigue life prediction equations. In this paper, the application and research status of constitutive equations and fatigue life prediction equations were reviewed, which provide theoretic guide for the reliability of lead-free solder joints.     

High cycle fatigue mechanisms of aluminum self‐piercing riveted joints

A study examining the fatigue failure mechanism of self‐piercing riveted (SPR) joints between aluminum alloy 6111‐T4 and 5754‐O is presented in this paper. In particular, the high‐cycle fatigue behavior of the SPR joints in the lap‐shear configuration is characterized. Experimental fatigue testing revealed that failure of SPR joints occurred because of cracks propagating through the sheet thickness at locations away from the rivet. In‐depth postmortem analysis showed that significant fretting wear occurred at the location of the fatigue crack initiation. Energy dispersive X‐ray of the fretting debris revealed the presence of aluminum oxide that is consistent with fretting initiated fatigue damage. High‐fidelity finite element analysis of the SPR process revealed high surface contact pressure at the location of fretting‐initiated fatigue determined by postmortem analysis of failed coupons. Furthermore, fatigue modeling predictions of the number of cycles to failure based on linear elastic fracture mechanics supports the conclusion that fretting‐initiated fatigue occurred at regions of high surface contact pressure and not at locations of nominal high‐stress concentration at the rivet.     

Mechanical fatigue of an electronic component under random vibration

Electronic equipment, which is widely used in military applications, must be able to survive harsh environments. The endurance of such equipment is defined by the durability of their internal sensitive components. In this study, vibration induced fatigue life analysis of an axial leaded aluminium capacitor is performed. Three point bending tests are performed for the composite FR‐4 printed circuit boards (PCBs) material in order to determine bending modulus. Experimental modal analysis is used to validate a simulation model of the PCB. Step stress tests (SSTs) of reinforced and unreinforced capacitors which are mounted on the test PCBs are performed. It is found that the failure locations on the test PCBs are compatible among themselves and all the failures are due to flexure stress developed at the lead wires and solder joints. Numerical fatigue analyses are performed to define failure in terms of damage index. In addition, the Weibull model is used to define mean time to failure (MTTF) values. The comparison between MTTF values shows that the fatigue lives are strongly increased by the eccobond reinforcement. The last stage in this work is to focus on the influence of some design parameters on the fatigue life. An exponential equation is proposed to find the relation between lead‐wire diameter and the fatigue damage. It is shown that fatigue damage becomes a maximum for a square shaped PCB and it appears that component body diameter is more effective than the body length in increasing fatigue life.     

A cyclic viscoplastic and creep damage model for lead free solder alloys

The reliability of microelectronic components under cyclic thermomechanical loading is an important problem especially for new leadfree solder alloys. To investigate the low cycle fatigue strength of solder joints, material models are required, that can describe the constitutive inelastic deformation and damage behavior of solder materials. Such models form the basis for advanced numerical analyses by the finite element method. In the present contribution an appropriate material model that combines the viscoplastic constitutive model of Chaboche-type with the damage law of A.C.F. Cocks for porous creep will be introduced. The algorithm is reported for an implementation as a user defined material subroutine into the FEM-code ABAQUS®. The necessary parameters of the material model are identified using results of miniaturized double lap-shear experiments and tensile tests for a Sn96Ag3Cu1 solder alloy at various temperatures. The comparison of experimental and numerical results shows a good agreement with respect to strain rate sensitivity, relaxation and damage behavior of the investigated solder material. Finally, some numerical applications to surface mounted microelectronic devices are presented.     

An innovative testing technique for assessing the VHCF response of adhesively bonded joints

In the last few years, the use of adhesive joints for structural applications has rapidly increased and adhesives are more often subject to fatigue loads during their in‐service life. In presence of a rapidly varying load, such as a high‐frequency vibration, adhesively bonded joints may undergo fatigue lives in the Very High Cycle Fatigue (VHCF) region that are significantly larger than those investigated in usual high‐cycle fatigue tests. The present paper proposes an innovative testing technique for performing accelerated fully reversed tension‐compression VHCF tests on adhesive butt‐joints. The procedure for the design of the adherends is described and then experimentally validated. Ultrasonic VHCF tests are finally carried out on a cyanoacrylate butt‐joint up to 10⁹ cycles: experimental results show that the proposed testing equipment permits an effective assessment of the VHCF response of the adhesive in a limited testing time.     

Intermetallic growth study on SnAgCu/Cu solder joint interface during thermal aging

The intermetallic compound (IMC) growth behavior at SnAgCu/Cu solder joint interface under different thermal aging conditions was investigated, in order to develop a framework for correlating IMC layer growth behavior between isothermal and thermomechanical cycling (TMC) effects. Based upon an analysis of displacements for actual flip-chip solder joint during temperature cycling, a special bimetallic loading frame with single joint-shear sample as well as TMC tests were designed and used to research the interfacial IMC growth behavior in SnAgCu/Cu solder joint, with a focus on the influence of stress–strain cycling on the growth kinetics. An equivalent model for IMC growth was derived to describe the interfacial Cu-Sn IMC growth behavior subjected to TMC aging as well as isothermal aging based on the proposed “equivalent aging time” and “effective aging time”. Isothermal aging, thermal cycling (TC) and TMC tests were conducted for parameter determination of the IMC growth model as well as the growth kinetic analysis. The SnAgCu/Cu solder joints were isothermally aged at 125, 150 and 175 °C, while the TC and TMC tests were performed within the temperature range from ?40 to 125 °C. The statistical results of IMC layer thickness showed that the IMC growth for TMC was accelerated compared to that of isothermal aging based on the same “effective aging time”. The IMC growth model proposed here is fit for predicting the IMC layer thickness for SnAgCu/Cu solder joint after any isothermal aging time or thermomechanical cycles. In addition, the results of microstructure evolution observation of SnAgCu/Cu solder joint subjected to TMC revealed that the interfacial zone was the weak link of the solder joint, and the interfacial IMC growth had important influence on the thermomechanical fatigue fracture of the solder joint.