Low temperature thermal strain of the IRFPA and the creep lifetime evaluation of solder joints

Abstract

Cryogenic Infrared Rays Focal Plane Array (IRFPA) detectors have been widely used in industry, transportation, security monitoring, meteorology and medicine because of the high sensitivity and temperature resolution. For HgCdTe IRFPA detectors, the typical working temperature is about 80 K. To make the IRFPA detector works at low temperatures, the detector should be integrated on a Dewar cold platform, whose refrigeration power would be higher than the heat load of the IRFPA. In general, the IRFPA detector and the Dewar cold platform would be integrated together to form a Dewar assembly at room temperature. In addition, the materials in IRFPA have different thermal expand coefficients, it means the thermal mismatch in the IRFPA would be an unavoidable issue in work. The thermal strain has a significant effect on the solder joints in switching cycle, which could lead to the creep strain and thermal fatigue crack. With the increase of the switch cyclic number, the creep strain and thermal fatigue crack under the thermal stress would lead to the failure of solder joints. Therefore, the low temperature thermal strain in switching cycle can affect the reliability of IRFPA detectors. So, the low temperature thermal strain and the creep lifetime of solder joints has been researched.