• 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.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.104-108
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• 2002

This paper was investigated the lead free solder characteristics by P mass percentage chang e. Tension test, wetting balance test, spread test, and analysis of intermetallic compound after isothermal aging of Sn-2.5Ag-0.7Cu-0.005P, Sn-2.5Ag-0.7Cu-0.01P, Sn-2.5Ag-0.7Cu-0.02P, Sn-0.7Cu-0.005P were performed for estimation. By adding P on the solder alloys, it was showe d improvement of tensile strength, reduction of intermetallic compound growth and reduction of oxidization of fusible solder under wave soldering processes. After comparing solder alloy containing P with tin lead eutectic solder alloy, p containing solder alloys showed much better solderability than eutectic solder alloys.

• 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.15 no.4
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• pp.87-92
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• 2008

The interface microstructure of Sn-3.5Ag/Cu joint was modified by electroplating varying amount of Zn on Cu UBM. As the amount of Zn dissolved in Sn-3.5Ag solder increased with the electroplating Zn thickness, Cu-Sn IMCs such as $Cu_6Sn_5$ and $Cu_3Sn$ were replaced by Zn-containing IMCs such as $Cu_5Zn_8$ and $Ag_5Zn_8$, which increased the drop reliability of solder joints significantly. When the amount of Zn dissolved in solder was about 3.8wt%, drop resistance was best due to the effective suppression of Cu-Sn IMC and voids at the interface.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.345-350
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• 2014

The surface oxidation mechanism of lead-free solder alloys has been investigated with multiple reflow using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It was found that the solder surface of Sn-Ag-Cu-In solder alloy is surrounded by a thin $InO_x$ layer after reflow process; this coating protects the metallic surface from thermal oxidation. Based on this result, we have performed a wetting balance test at various temperatures. The Sn-Ag-Cu-In solder alloy shows characteristics of both thermal oxidation and wetting balance better than those of Sn-Ag-Cu solder alloy. Therefore, Sn-Ag-Cu-In solder alloy is a good candidate to solve the two problems of easy oxidation and low wettability, which are the most critical problems of Pb-free solders.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.97-102
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• 2002

The growth kinetics of intermetallic compound layers formed between the eutectic Sn-3.5Ag solder and the Cu and Ni/Cu pad by solid stateisothermal aging were examined. The interfacial reaction between the eutectic Sn-3.5Ag solder and the Cu and Ni/Cu pad was investigated at 70, 120, 150, $170^{\circ}C$ for various times. The intermetallic compound layer was composed of two phase: $Cu_6Sn_5$(${\varepsilon}-phase$) adjacent to the solder and $Cu_6Sn_5$(${\varepsilon}-phase$) adjacent to the copper and on solder/Ni pad the intermetallic compound layer was $Ni_3Sn_4$. Because the values of time exponent(n) have approximately 0.5, the layer growth of the intermetallic compound was mainly controlled by volume diffusion over the temperature range studied. The apparent activation energy for layer growth of total Cu-Sn($Cu_6Sn_5 + Cu_6Sn$), $Cu_6Sn_5$, $Cu_3Sn$ and $Ni_3Sn_4$ intermetallic compound were 64.82kJ/mol, 48.53kJ/mol, 89.06kJ/mol and 71.08kJ/mol, respectively.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-81
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• 2002

Many kinds of Pb-free solder have been investigated because of the environmental concerns. Sn-Ag-Cu system is well blown as most competitive Pb-free solder. However, since Sn-Ag-Cu system has relatively high melting point compared to Sn-Pb eutectic, it may a limitation, the some application. In this study, Bi and In contained solder of $Sn_3Ag_8Bi_5In$ which has relatively lower melting point, $188~204^{\circ}C$, was investigated. $Sn_3Ag_8Bi_5In$ solder ball of $500\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter was set on the Ni/Cu/Cr-UBM and reflow soldered in the range of $220~240^{\circ}C$ for 5~15s. The maximum shear strength of the solder ball was around 170mN by reflowing at $240^{\circ}C$ for 10s. Intermetallic compound formed on the UBM of Si-wafer was analysed by SEM(scanning electron microscope) and XRD(X-ray diffractometer).

• 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.9 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2002

The intermetallic formation between Sn-Ag-(Cu) solders and metal pads in a real BGA package was characterized using SEM, EDS, and XRD. The intermetallic phase formed in the interface between Sn-Ag-Cu and Au/Ni/Cu pad is likely to be ternary compound of $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ from EDS analysis High concentration of Cu was observed in the solder/Ni interface. XRD analysis confirmed that $\eta -Cu_6 Sn_5$ type was intermetallic phase formed in the interface between Cu containing solders and Ni substrates and $Ni_3$Sn_4$ intermetallic was formed in the Sn-Ag solder/Ni interface. The thickness of intermetallic phase increased with the reflow times and Cu concentration in solder.