Evaluation of the impact of the physical dimensions and material of the semiconductor chip on the reliability of Sn3.5Ag solder interconnect in power electronic module: A finite element analysis perspective

Abstract

This paper primarily focuses on an evaluation study for the temperature cycling capability of tin silver solder interconnect in power electronic applications by the impact of die dimensions and die material properties. The study was investigated on finite element analysis perspective on chip/solder/substrate structure. A commercially available chip was chosen in the finite element analysis (FEA) as the nominal base die. Two thermal cycle profiles were utilised. The effect of die area, die thickness and material properties (Si and SiC) on the thermal cycling capability of the solder layer was investigated from FEA perspective. From the FEA, it was concluded that decrease in die thickness resulting in increment of thermal cycling capability of solder layer for both material (Si and SiC). Increase in die area increases the thermal cycling capability of solder. For higher ΔT thermal cycle, solder under SiC die perform better than solder under Si die in terms of thermal cycling capability. When the die thickness become smaller than a threshold value of the thermal cycle regime, solder under Si die have better thermal cycling capability than solder under SiC die. Additionally a parametric study was undertaken for a SiC chip/substrate structure under high ∆T temperature cycling profile for solder layer geometric parameter (wetting angle, titling angle and thickness). From the parametric study which utilised design of experiments (DoE), a wavelet radial basis surrogate model was generated. A sensitivity analysis was performed on surrogate model in order to identify the most influencing parameter. From the sensitivity analysis, it was concluded that wetting angle and solder layer thickness of solder layer have significant impact on the thermal cycling capability of the solder layer.

Correlation-driven machine learning for accelerated reliability assessment of solder joints in electronics

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports/ time. Previous studies have reported that the solder joint geometry plays a key role on its useful lifetime 2,42,66 . Principally, the bulkier the solder material, the more elastic and inelastic strains are induced in the solder material leading to accelerated degradation.…”

“…( 3 ), one can find that while the contribution of the fatigue failure mechanism in the solder joint degradation heavily depends on the temperature swing ΔT j (temperature heating up and cooling down rates), the contribution of the creep failure mechanism mainly depends on the dwelling temperature and time. Previous studies have reported that the solder joint geometry plays a key role on its useful lifetime 2 , 42 , 66 . Principally, the bulkier the solder material, the more elastic and inelastic strains are induced in the solder material leading to accelerated degradation.…”

Thermal Induced Interface Mechanical Response Analysis of SMT Lead-Free Solder Joint and Its Adaptive Optimization

“…With the development of the computer, numerical simulation using the finite element analysis (FEA) method is a more appropriate means of pre-analysis than testing. P. Rajaguru and H. Lu et al explored the effect of the geometric parameters of the soldering layer on the ability of solder joints to withstand thermal cycling through the FEA method [5]. They found that the wetting angle and the thickness of the solder layer had positive effects on the solder's ability to withstand thermal cycling, and the angle of inclination had negative effects on the solder layer's ability to withstand thermal cycling.…”