Significantly Improved Mechanical Properties of Bi- Sn Solder Alloys by Ag- Doping

The addition of small amounts of Ag (less than ~;0.5 wt. %) is found to significantly improve the ductility of the binary Bi-Sn eutectic solder. The ductility improvement, more than a threefold increase in tensile elongation, is observed even at a relatively high strain rate (0.01 s^-1). As the Bi-Sn binary eutectic alloy tends to fail catastrophically by brittle fracture at high strain rates, the reduced strain-rate sensitivity in the Ag-containing alloy is beneficial for improving solder reliability on sudden impacting as might be encountered during device assembly, shipping, or thermal shock/cycling. The observed increase in alloy ductility by Ag additions is attributed to a substantial refinement of the solidification microstructure.