Study of the Impact Performance of Solder Joints by High-Velocity Impact Tests

Abstract

The impact behavior of solder joints was studied using three different highvelocity impact tests: the U-notch Charpy impact test, the no-notch Charpy impact test, and a laboratory-designed drop test. The solder joints were made of five solder alloys, Sn-37Pb, Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-2.0Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu, and Sn-0.7Ag-0.7Cu (in wt.%), in which the traditional Cu/solder/Cu butt joint was used. All three impact tests gave the same trend of the impact behavior of the solder joints, with the Sn-37Pb joints having the highest impact resistance and the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu joints having the lowest impact resistance. For the lead-free joints, the Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu joints had better impact resistance than the Sn-2.0Ag-0.7Cu joints, and the Sn-2.0Ag-0.7Cu joints better than the Sn-0.7Ag-0.7Cu joints. The impact behavior was correlated well to the fracture morphologies observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Comparison of the three tests showed that the no-notch Charpy impact test is a promising method for evaluating the drop performance of solder joints.