Effect of voids on the reliability of BGA/CSP solder joints

Voids in solder joints have been considered as a defect in electronics assembly. The factors that affect void formation are complex and involve the interaction of many factors. There are no established standards for void size and void area in a solder joint for it to be deemed defective. Inspection criteria have been very subjective. The effect of voids on the reliability of solder joint may depend not only on the size, but also on frequency and location. This study is focussed on investigating the effect of voids on the reliability of solder joints. The size, location and frequency effects on the reliability were studied. Testing was done by mechanical deflection testing (torsion) system and air to air thermal cycling (−40 °C/125 °C). Failures were analyzed for the failure modes by cross sectional analysis. The results indicate that voids reduce the life of the solder joint. Voids which are greater than 50% of the solder joint area, decrease the mechanical robustness of the solder joints. Small voids also have an effect on the reliability, but it is dependent on the void frequency and location.     

Finite element analysis of the effect of process-induced voids on the fatigue lifetime of a lead-free solder joint under thermal cycling

Process-induced voids remain one of the key concerns in thermo-mechanical reliability of solder alloys. Previous studies reported that the void effect on fatigue failure reliability of solder joints depends on the void configuration and some other specific characteristics of the electronic package. This paper investigates the void effect on the solder material layers used in power modules subjected to thermal passive cycles. The Anand's visco-plastic model of the solder alloy is identified based on experimental data obtained with a micro-tester. The constitutive model is then used in a finite element analysis to study the behaviour of Innolot Pb-free solder joint used in an electronic assembly. An algorithm called Monte Carlo Representative Volume Element Generator is used to generate, based on the statistical probability law for the diameters, the 2D disk distribution of the voids (thereafter extruded in the form of cylinders) within the solder layer. The dissipated plastic energy is considered as a damage variable indicator representing the void effect on the fatigue lifetime of the solder. Results suggest that the fatigue reliability of solder joints depends not only on the size, location and ratio of the voids but also on their statistical distribution. The critical sites for damage are located at the corners of the joint, as well as at the border of voids. Fatigue lifetime of the solder joint decreases as the volume fraction of voids increases. Moreover, voids near the critical sites facilitate initiation of damage significantly. On the contrary, the solder joint behaviour is almost not affected by voids located far from the critical sites.     

低银无铅微互连焊点的振动疲劳行为研究

通过采用一系列与集成电路BGA(球栅阵列)、Flip Chip(倒装焊芯片)真实焊点体积接近的不同尺寸的典型“三明治”结构Sn0.3Ag0.7Cu低银无铅微互连焊点,基于动态力学分析的精密振动疲劳试验与微焊点疲劳断口形貌观察相结合的方法,研究了微焊点振动疲劳变形曲线的形成机制、裂纹萌生扩展与断裂机理、温度对振动疲劳行为的影响及微焊点振动疲劳行为的尺寸效应问题。结果表明,保持焊点直径恒定,随着焊点高度的减小,焊点的疲劳寿命增加,而疲劳断裂应变降低,同时焊点的疲劳断裂模式由韧性断裂转变为脆性断裂。     

热循环加载片式元器件带空洞无铅焊点的可靠性

建立了片式元器件带空洞无铅焊点有限元分析模型,研究了热循环加载条件下空洞位置和空洞面积对焊点热疲劳寿命的影响.结果表明:热循环加载条件下空洞位置和空洞面积显著影响焊点热疲劳寿命.空洞位置固定于焊点中部且面积分别为7.065×10-4,1.256×10-3,1.963×10-3和2.826×10-3mm2时,焊点热疲劳寿...     

基于热疲劳状态监测的PCB无铅焊点可靠性研究

以PCB片式电阻器件无铅焊点为研究对象,开展与有铅焊点剪切力-热疲劳状态比较试验研究。采用了伪失效寿命比较方法,获得了有限周期温度冲击下的焊点剪切力试验数据,采用非线性最小二乘法进行剪切力数据的曲线拟合。结果表明,封装尺寸是影响焊点热疲劳性能的重要因素。在1 500个有限周期内,无铅焊点的热疲劳性能优于有铅焊点。     

基于电阻应变临界点的无铅焊点失效分析

利用特制的焊点在线测试系统,测试了不同载荷条件下单个无铅焊点的电阻应变曲线,推导出电阻应变和损伤量之间的定量关系式,分析了焊点失效特性。结果表明:无铅焊点电阻应变曲线包括线性变化区和指数变化区;两个区域临界点处的电阻应变值为0.05左右,临界点至失效的时间约占焊点寿命的20.00%～30.00%;热循环条件下,40℃的电阻应变曲线临界点滞后于125℃的临界点,滞后时间约占焊点寿命的7.50%。     

Intermetallic growth studies on Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder joints

Solid-state intermetallic compound (IMC) growth behavior plays an important role in solder joint reliability of electronic packaging assemblies. The morphology and growth of interfacial IMC compounds between 95.5Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu Pb-free solders and nickel/gold (Ni/Au) surface finish on BGA solder joint specimen is reported. Digital imaging techniques were employed in the measurement of the average IMC growth thickness. The IMC growth behavior subjected to isothermal aging exposure at 125°C, thermal cycling (TC), and thermal shock (TS) with upper soak temperatures of 125°C are compared. An equivalent isothermal aging time is proposed for comparison of IMC layer growth data. It was noted that IMC layer growth under thermal cycling and thermal shock aging gives an acceleration factor of 1.4 and 2.3 based on the equivalent isothermal aging time.     

Nanoindentation on SnAgCu lead-free solder joints and analysis

The lead-free SnAgCu (SAC) solder joint on copper pad with organic solderability preservative (Cu-OSP) and electroless nickel and immersion gold (ENIG) subjected to thermal testing leads to intermetallic growth. It causes corresponding reliability concerns at the interface. Nanoindentation characterization on SnAgCu solder alloy, intermetallic compounds (IMCs), and the substrates subjected to thermal aging is reported. The modulus and hardness of thin IMC layers were measured by nanoindentation continuous stiffness measurement (CSM) from planar IMC surface. When SAC/Ni(Au) solder joints were subject to thermal aging, the Young’s modulus of the NiCuSn IMC at the SAC/ENIG specimen changed from 207 GPa to 146 GPa with different aging times up to 500 h. The hardness decreased from 10.0 GPa to 7.3 GPa. For the SAC/Cu-OSP reaction couple, the Young’s modulus of Cu₆Sn₅ stayed constant at 97.0 GPa and hardness about 5.7 GPa. Electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) was used to thermal aging. The creep effect on the measured result was analyzed when measuring SnAgCu solder; it was found that the indentation penetration, and thus the hardness, is loading rate dependent. With the proposed constant P/P experiment, a constant indentation strain rate h/h and hardness could be achieved. The log-log plot of indentation strain rate versus hardness for the data from the constant P/P experiments yields a slope of 7.52. With the optimized test method and CSM Technique, the Modulus of SAC387 solder alloy and all the layers in a solder joint were investigated.     

Reliability testing of WLCSP lead-free solder joints

The interfacial reactions of solder joints between Sn-4Ag-0.5Cu solder ball and a couple of presoldered pastes (Sn-7Zn-Al(30ppm) and Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu) were investigated in wafer-level chip-scale package (WLCSP). After appropriate surface mount technology reflow processes on printed circuit boards with a Cu/OSP (organic solderability preservative) surface finish, samples were subjected to 150°C high-temperature storage (HTS) for 1,000 h of aging or 1,000 cycles of a thermal cycling test (TCT). Sequentially, cross-section analysis is scrutinized by scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectrometry and energy probe microanalysis to observe metallurgical evolution in the interface and solder buck itself. It was found that the degradation of the joint shear strength after TCT is more pronounced than that of the shear strength after HTS. Fracture surface analyses of the shear tests show that the degradation of the joint strength for HTS is solely due to the influence of the interfacial IMC grain growth, while the shear strength degradation for TCT is mainly due to the coefficient thermal expansion mismatch from the thermal cycling at the chip-solder interface and can lead to the occurrence of the crack.     

Accelerated thermal fatigue of lead-free solder joints as a function of reflow cooling rate

Leadless chip resistor (LCR) assemblies were manufactured using both traditional tin-lead (Sn37Pb) and lead-free (Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu) solders. The leadfree test vehicles were assembled using three different cooling rates: 1.6°C/sec, 3.8°C/sec, and 6.8°C/sec. They were then exposed to accelerated thermalcycling (ATC) tests between 0°C and 100°C with a 10–14°C/min ramp rate and a 5-min dwell time. The test results indicated that these lead-free solder joints had better creep-fatigue performance than the tin-lead solder joints. The LCR built with the medium cooling rate showed the longest fatigue life compared with the resistors built with the normal cooling rate of 1.6°C/sec and the higher cooling rate 6.8°C/sec. The number of cycles to failure was significantly correlated to the void defect rate. Failure analyses were done using cross-sectioning methods and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finite-element models were built to analyze the inelastic, equivalent strain range in solder joints subjected to thermal-cycling conditions with different degrees of solder wetting. The results indicated that poor wetting increases strains throughout the joint significantly, which is in accordance with the ATC results.     

电阻法测量无铅焊点蠕变的有效性实验研究

为了解用于焊点性能评估的电阻测试法能否精确反映其蠕变特性,利用特制的焊点测试系统,同步采集无铅焊点在室温、25 N载荷下的电阻应变和剪切蠕变.实验表明它们的总体变化趋势相似,均可分为线性与指数阶段,但变化速率存在明显差异.两者临界拐点的延时程度与焊点的尺寸因子k有关,在一定的范围内(k= 4.5～8.5),延时程度仅在...     

Constitutive relations on creep for SnAgCuRE lead-free solder joints

Taking the most promising substitute of the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder as the research base, investigations were made to explore the effect of rare earths (REs) on the creep performance of the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder joints. The SnAgCu-0.1RE solder with the longest creep-rupture life was selected for subsequent research. Creep strain tests were conducted on Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints in the intermediate temperature range from 298 K to 398 K, corresponding to the homologous temperatures η=0.606, 0.687, 0.748, and 0.809 and η = 0.602, 0.683, 0.743, and 0.804, respectively, to acquire the relevant creep parameters, such as stress exponent and activation energy, which characterize the creep mechanisms. The final creep constitutive equations for Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints were established, demonstrating the dependence of steady-state creep rate on stress and temperature. By correcting the apparent creep-activation energy of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints from the experiments, the true creep-activation energy is obtained. Results indicated that at low stress, the true creep-activation energy of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints is close to the lattice self-diffusion activation energy, so the steady-state creep rates of these two solder joints are both dominated by the rate of lattice self-diffusion. While at high stress, the true creep-activation energy of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints is close to the dislocation-pipe diffusion activation energy, so the steady-state creep rates are dominated by the rate of dislocation-pipe diffusion. At low stress, the best-fit stress exponents n of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints are 6.9 and 8.2, respectively, and the true creep-activation energy of them both is close to that of lattice self-diffusion. At high stress, it equals 11.6 and 14.6 for Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints, respectively, and the true creep-activation energy for both is close to that of the dislocation-pipe diffusion. Thus, under the condition of the experimental temperatures and stresses, the dislocation climbing mechanism serves as the controlling mechanism for creep deformation of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints. The creep values of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu and SnAgCu-0.1RE solder joints are both controlled by dislocation climbing. Dislocation glide and climb both contribute to creep deformation, but the controlling mechanism is dislocation climb. At low stress, dislocation climbing is dominated by the lattice self-diffusion process in the Sn matrix and dominated by the dislocation-pipe diffusion process at high stress.     

无铅焊点在热疲劳和电迁移作用下的组织演变

研究了Cu/Sn-58Bi/Cu焊点接头在室温和55℃下通电过程中阴极和阳极界面处微观组织的演变,电流密度均采用104A/cm2。结果表明,室温条件下通电达到25 d,Bi原子由阴极向阳极发生了扩散迁移,在阳极界面处形成了厚度约22.4μm的均匀Bi层,而阴极出现了Sn的聚集。加载55℃通电2 d后,焊点发生了熔融,阴极界面处形成了厚度为34.3μm的扇贝状IMC,而阳极界面IMC的厚度仅为9.7μm。在IMC层和钎料基体之间形成了厚度约7.5μm的Bi层,它的形成阻碍了Sn原子向阳极界面的扩散迁移,进而阻碍了阳极界面IMC的生长,导致了异常极化效应的出现。     

Creep resistance of tin-based lead-free solder alloys

This paper reports on the microstructure-creep property relationship of three precipitation-strengthened tin (Sn)-based lead (Pb)-free solder alloys (Sn-0.7Cu, Sn-3.5Ag, and Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu) in bulk samples, together with Sn-37Pb as the alloy for comparison at temperatures of 303 K, 348 K, and 393 K. The creep resistance of these three Sn-based Pb-free solders increases, i.e., the steady-state creep rates decrease, with increasing volume fraction of precipitate phases for the Pb-free solder alloys. Their apparent stress exponents (n_a ∼ 7.3-17), which are all higher than that of pure Sn, attain higher values with increasing volume fraction of precipitate phases at constant temperature, and with decreasing temperature for the same solder alloy.     

Effect of dwell times on thermomechanical fatigue behavior of Sn-Ag-based solder joints

Thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) caused by the mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) between solder and substrate gradually degrades the mechanical properties of solder joints during service. Solder joints fabricated with eutectic Sn-Ag and Sn-Ag solder with Cu or Ni were subjected to TMF between −15°C and +150°C with dwell times of 115 min at high-temperature extreme and 20 min at low-temperature extreme. Characterization of surface damage and residual-mechanical strength of these solder joints were carried out after 0, 250, 500, and 1,000 TMF cycles. Results obtained from this study were compared with those obtained with longer dwell time at lower temperature extreme. The solder joints that experienced longer dwell times at high-temperature extreme exhibited less surface-damage accumulation and less decrease in simple-shear strength as compared to those that experienced longer dwell times at low-temperature extreme. Quaternary alloys containing small amounts of Cu and Ni exhibit better TMF performance than binary and ternary alloys under TMF cycling with longer dwell times at high-temperature extreme.     

微量Ti对Sn-9Zn-xTi无铅焊料耐蚀性的影响

Sn-Zn无铅焊料耐蚀性差是阻碍其应用推广的重要因素。本文通过在Sn-9Zn共晶合金中添加微量的Ti(质量分数=0,0.01%,0.03%,0.05%,0.1%),测量合金在质量分数3.5%Na Cl溶液中的极化曲线(I/E)和电化学阻抗谱(EIS),利用扫描电镜(SEM)对合金表面相貌进行了观察,并研究了不同浸泡时间下合金耐蚀性的变化。发现微量Ti能有效改善Sn-9Zn的耐蚀性,其中质量分数0.05%的Ti添加量最为合适。     

Low-cycle fatigue characteristics of Sn-based solder joints

Low-cycle, lap-shear fatigue behavior of Sn-based, Pb-free solder alloys, Sn-3.5Ag, Sn-3.5Ag-Cu, Sn-3.5Ag-Bi, and Sn-0.7Cu, were studied at room temperature using specimens with printed circuit board (PCB)/solder/PCB structure under total displacement of ±10 μm, 12 μm, 15 μm, and 20 μm. The fatigue lives of various solder joint materials, defined as 50% load drop, were correlated with the fracture paths and analyzed using the Coffin-Manson relation, Morrow’s plastic-energy dissipation model, and Solomon’s load-drop parameter. The Sn-3.5Ag, Sn-0.7Cu eutectics, and Sn-3.5Ag-Cu ternary alloys showed the same level of fatigue resistance, while Bi-containing alloys showed substantially worse fatigue properties. Cross-sectional fractography revealed cracks initiated at the solder wedge near the solder mask and subsequently propagated into the solder matrix in the former group of alloys, in contrast with the crack propagation along the solder/under bump metallurgy (UBM) interfaces in the Sn-3.5Ag-Bi alloys. Inferior fatigue resistance of Bi-containing alloys was ascribed to high matrix hardness, high stiffness, possible Bi segregation to the interface, and high residual stress in the interfacial area.     

Failure mechanism of lead-free solder joints in flip chip packages

The failure mechanisms of SnAgCu solder on Al/Ni(V)/Cu thin-film, underbump metallurgy (UBM) were investigated after multiple reflows and high-temperature storage using a ball shear test, fracture-surface analysis, and cross-sectional microstructure examination. The results were also compared with those of eutectic SnPb solder. The Al/Ni (V)/Cu thin-film UBM was found to be robust enough to resist multiple reflows and thermal aging at conditions used for normal production purposes in both SnAgCu and eutectic SnPb systems. It was found that, in the SnAgCu system, the failure mode changed with the number of reflows, relating to the consumption of the thin-film UBM because of the severe interfacial reaction between the solder and the UBM layer. After high-temperature storage, the solder joints failed inside the solder ball in a ductile manner in both SnAgCu and SnPb systems. Very fine Ag₃Sn particles were formed during multiple reflows in the SnAgCu system. They were found to be able to strengthen the bulk solder. The dispersion-strengthening effect of Ag₃Sn was lost after a short period of thermal aging, caused by the rapid coarsening of these fine particles.     

Thermomechanical fatigue behavior of Sn-Ag solder joints

Microstructural studies of thermomechanically fatigued actual electronic components consisting of metallized alumina substrate and tinned copper lead, soldered with Sn-Ag or 95.5Ag/4Ag/0.5Cu solder were carried out with an optical microscope and environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM). Damage characterization was made on samples that underwent 250 and 1000 thermal shock cycles between −40°C and 125°C, with a 20 min hold time at each extreme. Surface roughening and grain boundary cracking were evident even in samples thermally cycled for 250 times. The cracks were found to originate on the free surface of the solder joint. With increased thermal cycles these cracks grew by grain boundary decohesion. The crack that will affect the integrity of the solder joint was found to originate from the free surface of the solder very near the alumina substrate and progress towards and continue along the solder region adjacent to the Ag₃Sn intermetallic layer formed with the metallized alumina substrate. Re-examination of these thermally fatigued samples that were stored at room temperature after ten months revealed the effects of significant residual stress due to such thermal cycles. Such observations include enhanced surface relief effects delineating the grain boundaries and crack growth in regions inside the joint.     

剪切蠕变下无铅焊点厚度的尺寸效应

利用自制的电子测试系统,测量分析了试样焊点厚度(0.05～0.50mm)对电阻应变的影响。结果表明:在剪切蠕变条件下,焊点厚度为0.25mm时,电阻应变最小,蠕变寿命最长。利用有限元软件ANSYS对焊点的蠕变应变进行仿真分析。结果显示:随着焊点厚度变化,焊点蠕变应变的变化趋势与实验结果一致。将相同厚度下的电阻应变与蠕变应变进行拟合,得到了电阻应变与蠕变应变之间的定量关系式。