• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.406-412
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• 2001

This study is focussed on the numerical prediction of the thermal fatigue life of a ${\mu}BGA$(Micro Ball Grid Array) solder joint. Numerical method is used to perform three-dimensional finite element analysis for Sn-37mass%Pb. Sn-3.5mass%Ag solder alloys during the given thermal cycling. 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. In this study, a practical correlation for the prediction of the thermal fatigue life is suggested by using the dimensionless variable $\gamma$. As a result. it could be found that Sn-3.5mass%Ag has longer fatigue life than Sn-37mass%Pb in low cycle fatigue. In addition. the result with ${\gamm}ashow$a good agreement with the FEA results.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.42-47
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• 2000

The object of this study is to estimate Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga solder alloy as a substitute for Sn-37Pb alloy. For Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga alloys, Ag, Bi and Ga contents are varied. (Ag : 1~5%, Ga : 3%, Bi : 3~6%) Comparing to Sn-37Pb alloy Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga alloys have wider melting temperature range up to max. $18.7^{\circ}C$. With increasing Ag, Bi contents, the wettability of the alloys increased up to max. 6.6 mN. The vickers hardness of the alloys was max. 46.4 Hv. The ultimate tensile stress of the alloys was max. 60.3 MPa and the elongation was max. 1.2%. The joint strength between circuit board and solder was max. 55.5 N and the joint strength between connector and solder was max. 176.1 N. There were no cracks in this alloys after thermal shock test.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.145-153
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• 2013

In this study, shear punch-creep (SP-Creep) at Sn-4Ag/Cu pad the joint was tested by using environment-friendly Pb-free solder alloy Sn-4Ag of electronic components. Pb eutectic alloy (Sn-37Pb) joints limited to environmental issues with reflow time (10sec, 30sec, 100sec, 300sec) according to two types of solder alloy joints are compared and evaluated by creep strain rate, rupture time and IMC (Intermetallic Compound) behavior. As the results, reflow time increases with increasing thickness of IMC can be seen at overall 100sec later in case of two solder joints on the IMC thickness of Sn-4Ag solder joints thicker than Sn-37Pb solder joints. In addition, when considering creep evaluation factors, lead-free solder alloy Sn-4Ag has excellent creep resistance more than Pb eutectic alloy. For this reason, the two solder joints, such as in the IMC (Cu6Sn5) was formed. However, the creep resistance of Sn-4Ag solder joints was largely increased in the precipitation strengthening effect of dispersed Ag3Sn with interface more than Sn-37Pb solder joints.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.61-67
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• 2005

Since lead (Pb)-free solders for electronics have higher melting points than that of eutectic Sn-Pb solder, they need higher soldering temperatures. In order to decrease the soldering temperature we tried to coat Sn-Bi layer on $Sn-3.5\%Ag$ solder by electroplating, which applies the mechanism of transient liquid phase bonding to soldering. During heating Bi will diffuse into the $Sn-3.5\%Ag$ solder and this results in decreasing soldering temperature. As bonding samples, the 1608 capacitor electroplated with Sn, and PCB, its surface was finished with electroless-plated Ni/Au, were selected. The $Sn-95.7\%Bi$ coated Sn-3.5Ag was supplied as a solder between the capacitor and PCB land. The samples were reflowed at $220^{\circ}C$, which was lower than that of normal reflow temperature, $240\~250^{\circ}C$, for the Pb-free. As experimental result, the joint of $Sn-95.7\%Bi$ coated Sn-3.5Ag showed high shear strength. In the as-reflowed state, the shear strength of the coated solder showed 58.8N, whereas those of commercial ones were 37.2N (Sn-37Pb), 31.4N (Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu), and 40.2N (Sn-8Zn-3Bi). After thermal shock of 1000 cycles between $-40^{\circ}C$ and $+125^{\circ}C$, shear strength of the coated solder showed 56.8N, whereas the previous commercial solders were in the range of 32.3N and 45.1N. As the microstructures, in the solder $Ag_3Sn$ intermetallic compound (IMC), and along the bonded interface $Ni_3Sn_4$ IMC were observed.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.82-88
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• 2007

Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu lead fee solder was generally utilized in electronics assemblies. But it is insufficient to research about activation energy(Q) that is applying to evaluate the solder joint reliability of environmental friendly electronics assemblies. Therefore this study investigated Q values which are needed to IMC formation and growth of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu/Cu and Sn-40pb/Cu solder joints during aging treatment. We bonded Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-40Pb solders on FR-4 PCB with Cu pad$(t=80{\mu}m)$. After reflow soldering, to observe the IMC formation and growth of the solder joints, test specimens were aged at 70, 150 and $170^{\circ}C$ for 1, 2, 5, 20, 60, 240, 960, 15840, 28800 and 43200 min, respectively. SEM and EDS were utilized to analysis the IMCS. From these results, we measured the total IMC$(Cu_6Sn_5+Cu_3Sn)$ thickness of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu/Cu and Sn-40Pb/Cu interface, and then obtained Q values for the IMC$(Cu_6Sn_5,\;Cu_3Sn)$ growth of the solder joints.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.43-47
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• 2001

Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In was developed for the intermediate melting point solder. Although In-contained solder is expensive, its melting point is lower than these of Sn-Ag-Cu alloys. Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In solder used for this research has a melting range of 188~$204^{\circ}C$. On this study wetting characteristics of Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In were evaluated in order to investigate its availability as a Pb-free solder. Wettabilities of Sn-37Pb and Sn-3.5Ag solders were also studied to compare these of the Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In. Experimental results showed that the zero-cross-time and wetting time at $240^{\circ}C$ for the Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In were 1.1 and 2.2 second respectively. These values are a little better than these of Sn-37Pb and Sn-3.5Ag solders. The equilibrium wetting farce of the Sn-3Ag-8Bi-5In was 5.8 mN at $240^{\circ}C$, and it was tuned out to be a little higher than that of Sn-3.5Ag and lower than that of Sn-37Pb.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.8
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• pp.500-507
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• 2009

Pb-free solder has recently been used in electronics in efforts to meet environmental regulations, and a number of Pb-free solder alloy choices beyond the near-eutectic SnAgCu solder are now available. With increased demand for thin and portable electronics, the high cost of alloys containing significant amounts of silver and their poor mechanical shock performance have spurred the development of low Ag SnAgCu solder, which provides improved mechanical performance at a reasonable cost. Although low Ag SnAgCu solder exhibits significantly higher fracture resistance under high-strain rates, little thermal fatigue data exist for this solder. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate thermal fatigue reliability of low Ag SnAgCu solder under variation of thermal stress in order to allow its implementation in electronic products with high reliability requirements. In this study, the reliability of Sn0.3Ag0.7Cu(SAC0307), a low Ag solder alloy, is discussed and compared with that of Sn3Ag0.5Cu(SAC305). Three sample types and six samples size are evaluated. Mechanical properties and microstructure of the solder joint are investigated under thermal shock cycles. It was observed that the mechanical strength of SAC0307 dropped slightly with thermal cycling relative to that of SAC305. This reveals that the failure mode of SAC0307 is different from that SAC305 under this critical condition.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2022

In this study, properties of Pb-free solder joints which were combined using Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) Pb-free solder with a mid-temperature type of melting temperature and Sn-57Bi-1Ag Pb-free solder with a low-temperature type of melting temperature were reported. Combined Pb-free solder joints were formed by reflow soldering processes with ball grid array (BGA) packages which have SAC305 solder balls and flame retardant-4 (FR-4) printed circuit boards (PCBs) which printed Sn-57Bi-1Ag solder paste. The reflow soldering processes were performed with two types of temperature profiles and interfacial properties of combined Pb-free solder joints such as interfacial reactions, formations of intermetallic compounds (IMCs), diffusion mechanisms of Bi, and so on were analyzed with the reflow process conditions. In order to compare reliability characteristics of combined Pb-free solder joints, we also conducted thermal shock test and analyzed changes of mechanical properties for joints from a shear test during the thermal shock test.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.89-96
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• 2000

As solder becomes small and fine, the reliability and solderability of solder joint are the critical issue in present electronic packaging industry. Besides the use of lead(Pb) containing solders for the interconnections of microelectronic subsystem assembly and packaging has enviromental problem. In this study, using Sn/Pb and Sn/Ag eutectic solder paste, in order to obtain decrease of solder joint strength with increasing aging time, initial solder joint strength and aging strength after 1000 hour aging at $100^{\circ}C$ were measured by peel test. And in order to obtain the growth of intermetallic compound(IMC) layer thickness, IMC layer thickness was measured by scanning electron microscope(SEM). As a result, solder joint strength was decreased with increasing aging time. The mean IMC layer thickness was increased linearly with the square root of aging time. The diffusion coefficient(D) of IMC layer was found to $1.29{\times}10^{-13}{\;}cm^2/s$ at using Sn/Pb solder paste, 7.56{\times}10^{-14}{\textrm}{cm}^2/s$ at using Sn/Ag solder paste.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.750-760
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• 2002

In this study, three solders, Sn-37Pb, Sn-3.5Ag, and Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu were screen printed on both electroless Ni/Au and OSP metal finished micro-via PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards). The interfacial reaction between PCB metal pad finish materials and solder materials, and its effects on the solder bump joint mechanical reliability were investigated. The lead free solders formed a large amount of intermetallic compounds (IMC) than Sn-37Pb on both electroless Ni/Au and OSP (Organic Solderabilty Preservatives) finished PCBs during solder reflows because of the higher Sn content and higher reflow temperature. For OSP finish, scallop-like $Cu_{6}$ /$Sn_{5}$ and planar $Cu_3$Sn intermetallic compounds (IMC) were formed, and fracture occurred 100% within the solder regardless of reflow numbers and solder materials. Bump shear strength of lead free solders showed higher value than that of Sn-37Pb solder, because lead free solders are usually harder than eutectic Sn-37Pb solder. For Ni/Au finish, polygonal shaped $Ni_3$$Sn_4$ IMC and P-rich Ni layer were formed, and a brittle fracture at the Ni-Sn IMC layer or the interface between Ni-Sn intermetallic and P-rich Ni layer was observed after several reflows. Therefore, bump shear strength values of the Ni/Au finish are relatively lower than those of OSP finish. Especially, spalled IMCs at Sn-3.5Ag interface was observed after several reflow times. And, for the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu solder case, the ternary Sn-Ni-Cu IMCs were observed. As a result, it was found that OSP finished PCB was a better choice for solders on PCB in terms of flip chip mechanical reliability.