The effect of adding Ni and Ge microelements on the electromigration resistance of low-Ag based SnAgCu solder

Low-Ag-based Pb-free solder and its evaluation for electromigration (EM) reliability are research areas of active development. This paper studies the effect of adding Ni and Ge microelements on the EM behavior of low-Ag-based SnAgCu solder. Comparative measurements of the EM resistance of Sn1.0Ag0.5Cu (SAC) and Sn1.0Ag0.5Cu0.07Ni0.01Ge (SACNG) solders (in wt?%) were conducted. In these experiments, SACNG showed a higher EM resistance than SAC. It was concluded that adding Ni and Ge enhanced the EM resistance of low-Ag-based SnAgCu solders. This shows the same effect of Ni and Ge on the EM resistance as that which has been reported for Sn3.5Ag0.5Cu solder. An analysis of these observations suggests that grain boundary sliding plays a dominant role in stress relaxation and causes hillock growth. Based on this assumption, a possible mechanism was proposed to explain the effects of Ni and Ge on the EM resistance of SnAgCu solder.