• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.449-454
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• 2009

This paper presents an experimental study on the failure characteristics of SnAgCu lead-free solder balls. To estimate the effect of Ag, three types of SnAgCu balls are first prepared by varying the weight percent of Ag(1.0, 3.0, 4.0 wt%) and then analyzed by reliability tests such as thermal shock, high speed ball shear, and drop tests. Thermal shock test reveals that the higher the weight percent of Ag is, the longer the fatigue lift becomes. To the contrary, high speed ball-shear test and drop test show that the shear strength and the fracture toughness of solder balls are inversely proportional to the weight percent of Ag, respectively, Reasons for these observations will be further investigated In the future work.

• 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 Welding and Joining
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.60-67
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• 2014

The ability of electronic packages and assemblies to resist solder joint failure is becoming a growing concern. This paper reports on a study of high speed shear energy of Sn-4.0wt%Ag-0.5wt%Cu (SAC405) solder with different electroless Ni-P thickness, with $HNO_3$ vapor's status, and with various pre-conditions. A high speed shear testing of solder joints was conducted to find a relationship between the thickness of Ni-P deposit and the brittle fracture in electroless Ni-P deposit/SAC405 solder interconnection. A focused ion beam (FIB) was used to polish the cross sections to reveal details of the microstructure of the fractured pad surface with and without $HNO_3$ vapor treatment. A scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and an energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDS) confirmed that there were three intermetallic compound (IMC) layers at the SAC405 solder joint interface: $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4$ layer, $(Ni,Cu)_2SnP$ layer, and $(Ni,Sn)_3P$ layer. The high speed shear energy of SAC405 solder joint with $3{\mu}m$ Ni-P deposit was found to be lower in pre-condition level#2, compared to that of $6{\mu}m$ Ni-P deposit. Results of focused ion beam and energy dispersive x-ray analysis of the fractured pad surfaces support the suggestion that the brittle fracture of $3{\mu}m$ Ni-P deposit is the result of Ni corrosion in the pre-condition level#2 and the $HNO_3$ vapor treatment.