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

Abstract

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.

Improvement of PbSn Solder Reliability with Ge Microalloying-Induced Optimization of Intermetallic Compounds Growth

“…As a commonly used microalloying element in SnAgCu (SAC) and SnCu solder alloy, Ge functions as an anti-oxidant and improves the wetting performance of the alloy. The addition of Ge reduces the aging degradation and prohibits IMC overgrowth [33,34]. Hasnine et al [33] researched the effect of high-temperature storage on the microstructural and mechanical behavior of SnCu solder alloys with doped Ge.…”

Analysis and Modeling of Aged SAC-Bi Solder Joints Subjected to Varying Stress Cycling Conditions

“…Because of the environmental and health risks of lead, it is being phased out and replaced by a new semi-eutectic solder alloy. Microalloying with nickel (Ni), bismuth (Bi), antimony (Sb), indium (In), and other elements could enhance the performance of solder alloys [ 1 ]. Although extensive studies have been performed on the mechanical and thermal characteristics, including fatigue of various solder alloys using accelerated test conditions, the reliability of solder joints in real service requires further investigation to be better understood.…”

“…Regardless of stress or aging conditions, SAC-Bi was shown to have a longer fatigue life than SAC305. Other analyses have scrutinized the shear fatigue characteristics of SAC-based micro-alloys with Bi, Ni, and Sb under various organic solderability preservatives (OSP) and immersion silver (ImAg) surface finishes [ 1 ]. It was observed that the greater the Ag content, the better the fatigue and shear strengths achieved [ 4 ].…”