• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.49-55
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• 2011

The failure of electronic instruments is mostly caused by heat and shock. This shock causes the crack initiation at the solder joint interface of PCB component which is closely related with the formation of intermetallic compound(IMC). The Ag content in Pb-free Sn-xAg-0.5Cu solder alloy used in this study was 1.0, 1.2 and 3.0 wt.%, respectively. After soldering with PCB component, isothermal aging was performed to 1000 hrs. The growth of IMC layer was observed during isothermal aging. The drop impact property of solder joint was evaluated by impact bending test method. The solder joint made with the solder containing lower Ag content showed better impact bending property compared with that with higher Ag content. On the contrary to this result, the solder joint made with solder containing higher Ag content showed better impact bending property after aging. It should be caused by the formation of fine $Ag_3Sn$, which relieved the impact. It showed consequently the different effect of fine $Ag_3Sn$ and coarse $Cu_6Sn_5$ particles formed in the IMC layer on the impact bending property.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2014

With Pb-free solder joints containing Sn-Ag-Cu-based ternary alloys (Sn-1.0 wt.%Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu) and Sn-Ag-Cu-In-based quaternary alloys (Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu-1.0In, Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-0.4In, Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-0.6In, and Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu-0.4In), fracture-mode change, shear strengths, and fracture energies were observed and measured under a high-speed shear test of 500 mm/s. The samples in each composition were prepared with as-reflowed ones or solid-aged ones at $125^{\circ}C$ to 500 h. As a result, it was observed that ductile or quasi-ductile fracture modes occurs in the most of Sn-Ag-Cu-In samples. The happening frequency of a quasi-ductile fracture mode showed that the Sn-Ag-Cu-In joints possessed ductile fracture properties more than that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu in the high-speed shear condition. Moreover, the Sn-Ag-Cu-In joints presented averagely fracture energies similar to those of Sn-Ag-Cu joints. While maximum values in the fracture energies were measured after the solid aging for 100 h, clear decreases in the fracture energies were observed after the solid aging for 500 h. This result indicated that reliability degradation of the Sn-Ag-Cu-In solder joints might accelerate from about that time.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.53-57
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• 2013

Although the lowering of Ag content in Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu is known to improve the mechanical shock reliability of the solder joint, it is also known to be detrimental to the solderbility. In this study, the quaternary alloying effect of In and the minor alloying effects of Mn and Pd on the solderability, thermal cycling and mechanical shock reliabilities of the low Ag content Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu solder were investigated using board-level BGA packages. The solderability of Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu-0.4In was proved to be comparable to that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu but its thermal cycling reliability was inferior to that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu. While the 0.03 wt% Pd addition to the Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu-0.4In decreased the solderability and reliabilities of solder joint, the 0.1 wt% Mn addition was proved to be beneficial especially for the mechanical shock reliability compared to those of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu compositions. It was considered to be due that the Mn addition decreased the Young's modulus of low Ag content Pb-free solders.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.41-45
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• 2011

SnAgCu lead-free solder alloy is considered as the best alternative to eutectic tin-lead solder. However, the detailed material properties of SnAgCu solder are not available in public. Hence, this paper presents an estimation of mechanical properties of SnAgCu lead-free solder. In particular, the weight percent of Ag was varied as 1.0wt%, 2.5wt%, 3.0wt%, and 4.5wt% in order to estimate the effect of Ag in the Sn-xAg-0.5Cu ternary alloy system. For this purpose, four types of SnAgCu bars were first molded by casting and then standard specimens were cut out of molded bars. Micro-Vickers hardness, tensile tests were finally performed to estimate the variations in mechanical properties according to the weight percent of Ag. Test results reveal that the higher the weight percent of Ag is, the higher the hardness, yield strength, and ultimate tensile strength become. More material properties will be further investigated in the future work.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.92-98
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• 2003

This paper describes the numerical prediction of the thermal fatigue life of a $\mu$BGA(Micro Ball Grid Array) solder joint. Finite element analysis(FEA) was employed to simulate thermal cycling loading for solder joint reliability. Strain values, along with the result of mechanical fatigue tests for solder alloys were then used to predict the solder joint fatigue life using the Coffin-Manson equation. The results show that Sn-3.5mass%Ag solder had the longest thermal fatigue life in low cycle fatigue. Also a practical correlation for the prediction of the thermal fatigue life was suggested by using the dimensionless variable ${\gamma}$, which was possible to use several lead free solder alloys for prediction of thermal fatigue life. Furthermore, when the contact angle of the ball and chip has 50 degrees, solder joint has longest fatigue life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.193-201
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• 2011

Recently, mechanical reliabilities including a drop test have been a hot issue. In this paper, solder balls with new components which are Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu-0.05N are introduced, and board level drop test for them are conducted under JEDEC standard in which the board with 15 flip chips is dropped as 1,500g acceleration during 0.5ms. The drop simulations are studied by using a implicit method in the ANSYS LS-DYNA, and modal analysis is made. Through both analyses, the solder balls with new components are evaluated under the drop. It is found that the maximum stress of each chip is occurred between the solder ball and the PCB, and the highest value among the maximum stresses in the chips is occurred on the chip nearest to fixed holes on the board in the drop tests and simulations.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2009

The effects of aging time on the microstructure and shear strength of the Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC)/Ag pad/Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG)/BGA solder joints were investigated through isothermal aging at $150^{\circ}C$ for 1000 h with conventional Sn-37Pb and Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu. $Ni_3Sn_4$ intermetallic compound (IMC) layers was formed at the interface between Sn-37Pb solder and LTCC substrate as-reflowed state, while $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4$ IMC layer was formed between Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder and LTCC substrate. Additional $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ layer was found at the interface between the $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4$ layer and Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder after aging at $150^{\circ}C$ for 500 h. Thickness of the IMC layers increased and coarsened with increasing aging time. Shear strength of both solder joints increased with increasing aging time. Failure mode of BGA solder joints with LTCC substrate after shear testing revealed that shear strength of the joints depended on the adhesion between Ag metallization and LTCC. Fracture mechanism of Sn-37Pb solder joint was a mixture of ductile and pad lift, while that of Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder joint was a mixture of ductile and brittle $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4$ IMC fracture morphology. Failure mechanisms of LTCC/Ag pad/ENIG/BGA solder joints were also interpreted by finite element analyses.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.45-51
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• 2013

Thermal annealing tests were performed in an in-situ scanning electron microscope chamber at $130^{\circ}C$, $150^{\circ}C$, and $170^{\circ}C$ in order to investigate the effects of solder structure on the growth kinetics of intermetallic compound (IMC) in Cu/Sn-3.5Ag microbump. Cu/Sn-3.5Ag($6{\mu}m$) microbump with spreading solder structure showed $Cu_6Sn_5$ and $Cu_3Sn$ phase growths and then IMC phase transition stages with increasing annealing time. By the way, Cu/Sn-3.5Ag($4{\mu}m$) microbump without solder spreading, remaining solder was transformed to $Cu_6Sn_5$ right after bonding and had only a phase transition of $Cu_6Sn_5$ to $Cu_3Sn$ during annealing. Measured activation energies for the growth of the $Cu_3Sn$ phase during the annealing were 0.80 and 0.71eV for Cu/Sn-3.5Ag($6{\mu}m$) and Cu/Sn-3.5Ag($4{\mu}m$), respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.151-156
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• 2007

In this paper, the creep characteristics of lead and lead-free solder joint were investigated using the QFP(Quad Flat Package) creep test. Two kind of solder pastes(Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-0.2Sb-0.4Ag-37.4Pb) were applied to the QFP solder joints and each specimen was checked the external and internal failures(i.e., wetting failure, void, pin hole, poor-heel fillet) by digital microscope and X-ray inspection. The creep test was conducted at the temperatures of $100^{\circ}C$ and $130^{\circ}C$ under the load of 15$\sim$20% of average pull strength in solder joints. The creep characteristics of each solder joints were compared using the creep strain-time curve and creep strain rate-stress curves. Through the comparison, the Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder joints have higher creep resistance than that of Sn-0.3Sb-0.4Ag-37.4Pb. Also, the grain boundary sliding in the fracture surface and the necking of solder joint were observed by FE-SEM.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.402-407
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• 2007

In electronics manufacturing processes, soldering process has generally been used in surface mounting technology. Because of environmental restriction, lead free solders as like a SnAgCu ternary system are being used widely. After soldering process, the formation and growth of intermetalic compounds(IMCs) are formed in the interface between solder and Cu substrate as follows isothermal temperature and time. In this studies, therefore, we investigated the effects of the Cu substrate thickness on the IMC formation and growth of Sn-40Pb/Cu and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu/Cu solder joints, respectively. The effect of the Cu thickness in PCB Cu pad and pure Cu plate was analyzed as measuring of thickness of each IMC. After solder was soldered on PCB and Cu plate which have different Cu thickness, we measured the IMC thickness in solder joints respectively. Also we compared with the effectiveness of Cu thickness on the IMC growth. From these results, we calculated the activation energy.