Changes in the microstructure of materials and their impact on reliability: experiments and modeling

Abstract

Several types of microstructural changes in microelectronic solder materials are briefly discussed, namely the formation of intermetallics, Kirkendall voiding, spinodal decomposition, and coarsening. Moreover, a theoretical framework, based on the entropy principle, is developed by means of which constitutive equations can be derived that are necessary to understand and simulate such processes. The resulting equations are specialized to binary alloys and then investigated numerically. Finally, simulations of spinodal decomposition and coarsening are performed for the eutectic solder AgCu. The theoretical predictions are compared with experiments.