Effect of Solder Sphere Alloys and Surface Finishes on the Reliability of Lead-Free Solder Joints in Accelerated Thermal Cycling

Akkara, Francy John; Zhao, Cong; Athamneh, Raed Al; Su, Sinan; Abueed, Mohammed; Hamasha, Sa’d; Suhling, Jeff; Lall, Pradeep

doi:10.1109/itherm.2018.8419534

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The drawback of this research is that because a solder joint also encompasses solder spheres and surface finishes in addition to solder paste, the impact of these parameters on reliability should also be considered. Akkara et al [ 14 ] stated that the electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) surface finish was preferable to the others, which was attributable to the Ni coating that preventing copper diffusion. Akkara et al [ 15 ] investigated the impact of combining solder spheres and surface finish (SF) with SAC-Bi pastes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the fatigue life of the SAC- Bi alloys was poor for the ENIG surface finish due to the brittle nature of the IMC-Ni interface. Francy et al [ 14 ] studied the influence of the surface finish on thermal cycling. The findings demonstrated that the ENIG surface finishes outperformed other finishes in terms of fatigue life performance, independent of the SAC content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The other micro-alloying elements, such as Bi, Ni, and Sb, were also reported to improve the reliability of solder joints [ 2 , 6 , 16 ]. Meanwhile, these elements could prevent the degradation of properties during aging [ 6 , 14 , 15 ]. ENIG surface finishes outperformed OSP and ImAg surface finishes in the thermal cycling test [ 14 ], while the converse conclusion was drawn from the mechanical shear fatigue test [ 16 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meanwhile, these elements could prevent the degradation of properties during aging [ 6 , 14 , 15 ]. ENIG surface finishes outperformed OSP and ImAg surface finishes in the thermal cycling test [ 14 ], while the converse conclusion was drawn from the mechanical shear fatigue test [ 16 ]. The failure mechanism of solder joints in thermal cycling tests still needs a clear understanding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Micro-Alloying and Surface Finishes on the Thermal Cycling Reliability of Doped SAC Solder Alloys

et al. 2022

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The surface finish (SF) becomes a part of the solder joint during assembly and improves the component’s reliability. Furthermore, the SF influences the solder joint’s reliability by affecting the thickness of the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer at the solder interface and copper pads. In this experiment, five different alloys are used and compared with the SAC305 alloy, two of which, Innolot and SAC-Bi, are bi-based solder alloys. This study includes three common SFs: electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG), immersion silver (ImAg), and organic solderability preserve (OSP). The performance of three surface finishes is examined in terms of component characteristic life. All of the boards were isothermally aged for twelve months at 125 °C. The boards were then exposed to 5000 cycles of thermal cycling at temperatures ranging from −40–+125 °C. Most of the current research considers only one or two factors affecting the reliability of the electronic package. This study combines the effect of multiple factors, including solder paste content, SF, isothermal aging, and thermal cycling, to ensure that the test conditions represent real-world applications. In addition, the electronics packages are assembled using commercialized alloys. The current study focuses on a high-performance alloy already present in the electronic market. The failure data were analyzed statistically using the Weibull distribution and design of experiments (DOE) analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques. The findings reveal that the micro and uniformly distributed precipitates in solder microstructures are critical for high-reliability solder joints. Re-crystallization of the thermally cycled solder joints promotes the local formation of numerous new grains in stress-concentrated zones. As the fracture spreads along these grain boundaries and eventually fails, these new grains participate in crack propagation. Aging significantly worsens this situation. Finally, although the ENIG surface finish with its Ni layer outperforms other SFs, this does not imply that ENIG is more reliable in all solder paste/sphere/finish combinations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%