Creep property of composite solders reinforced by nano-sized particles

In the present work the creep properties of Sn37Pb and Sn0.7Cu based composite solders with nano-sized metallic Cu, Ag and nano-sized oxide Al₂O₃, TiO₂ reinforcement particles have been studied. First, a series of volume percentages of reinforcements were selected for optimizing the content of particles. Then, the composite solder with optimum volume fraction of the reinforcement particles, corresponding to maximum creep rupture life, is selected for investigating the effect of applied stress level and test temperature on creep rupture life of the composite solder joints. In the creep rupture life test, small single-lap tensile-shear joints were adopted. The results indicate that all the composite solders have improved creep resistance, comparing to the eutectic Sn37Pb solder and the Sn0.7Cu lead-free solder. The creep rupture life of the composite solder joints is first increased with the increase in the volume fraction of reinforcement in the composite solders. Then, the creep rupture life is decreased, as the reinforcement content exceeds a certain value. The creep rupture life of the solder joints is decreased with the increase of applied stress and testing temperature. Moreover, the reinforced efficiency of nano-sized Ag particles is the best in all the tested nano-sized reinforcements for the Sn37Pb based and Sn0.7Cu based composite solders, when the particles contents are in their own optimum content.