• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

Understanding the void characterization in the solder joints has become more important because of the application of lead free solder materials and its reliability in electronic packaging technology. According to the JEDEC 217 standard, it describes void types formed in the solder joints, and divides into some categories depending on the void position and formation cause. Based on the previous papers and the standards related to the void, reliability of the BGA solder joints is determined by the size of void, as well as the location of void inside the BGA solder ball. Prior to reflow soldering process, OSP(organic surface preservative) finished Cu electrode was exposed under $85^{\circ}C$/60%RH(relative humidity) for 168 h. Voids induced by the exposure of $85^{\circ}C$/60%RH became larger and bigger with increasing aging times. The void position has more influence on mechanical strength property than the amount of void growth does.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.64-69
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• 2012

Sn-Bi eutectic alloy has been widely used as one of the key solder materials for step soldering at low temperature. The Sn-58Bi solder paste containing chloride flux was adopted to compare with that using the chloride-free flux. The paste was applied on the electroless nickel-immersion gold (ENIG) surface finish by stencil printing, and the reflow process was then performed at $170^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. After reflow, the solder joints were aged at $125^{\circ}C$ for 100, 200, 300, 500 and 1000 h in an oven. The interfacial microstructures were obtained by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the composition of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) was analyzed using energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). Two different IMC layers, consisting of $Ni_3Sn_4$ and relatively very thin Sn-Bi-Ni-Au were formed at the solder/surface finish interface, and their thickness increased with increasing aging time. The wettability of solder joints was investigated by wetting balance test. The mechanical property of each aging solder joint was evaluated by the ball shear test in accordance with JEDEC standard (JESD22-B117A). The results show that the highest shear force was measured when the aging time was 100 h, and the fracture mode changed from ductile fracture to brittle fracture with increasing aging time. On the other hand, the chloride flux in the solder paste did not affect the shear force and fracture mode of the solder joints.

• 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 Welding and Joining
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.99-106
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• 2011

Joint strength between a solder ball and a pad on a substrate is one of the major factors which have effects on electronic device reliability. The effort to improve solder joint strength via surface cleaning, heat treatment and solder composition change have been in progress. This paper will discuss the method of solder ball joint strength improvement using LF hydrogen radical cleaning treatment and focus on the effects of surface treatment condition on the solder ball shear strength and interfacial reactions. In the joint without radical cleaning, voids were observed at the interface. However, the specimens cleaned by hydrogen-radical didn't have voids at the interface regardless of cleaning time. The shear strength between the solder ball and the pad was increased over 120%(about 800gf) when compared to that without the radical treatment (680gf) under the same reflow condition. Especially, at the specimen treated for 5minutes, ball shear strength was considerably increased over 150%(1150gf). Through the observation of fracture surface and cross-section microstructure, the increase of joint strength resulted from the change of fracture mode, that is, from the solder ball fracture to IMC/Ni(P) interfacial fracture. The other cases like radical treated specimen for 1, 3, 7, 9min. showed IMC/solder interfacial fracture rather than fracture in the solder ball.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2001

Chip-on-glass(COG) mounting of area array electronic packages was attempted by heating the rear surface of a contact pad film deposited on a glass substrate. The pads consisted of an adhesion (i.e. Cr or Ti) and a top coating layer(i.e. Ni or Cu) were healed by the UV laser beam transmitted through the glass substrate. The lather energy absorbed on the pad raised the temperature of a solder ball which is in physical contact with the pad, and formed a reflowed solder bump. The effects of the adhesion and top coating layer on the laser reflow soldering were studied by measuring temperature profile of the ball during the laser heating process. The results were discussed based on the measurement of reflectivity of the adhesion layer. In addition, the microstructures of solder bumps and their mechanical properties were examined.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.152-159
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• 2007

When the electronics are tested with thermal shock for Pb-free solder joint reliability, there are temperature conditions with use environment but number of cycles for test don't clearly exist. To obtain the long term reliability data, electronic companies have spent the cost and times. Therefore this studies show the test method and number of thermal shock cycles for evaluating the solder joint reliability of electronic components and also research bonding strength variation with formation and growth of intermetallic compounds (IMC). SMD (surface mount device) 3216 chip resistor and 44 pin QFP (quad flat package) was utilized for experiments and each components were soldered with Sn-40Pb and Sn-3.0 Ag-0.5 Cu solder on the FR-4 PCB(printed circuit board) using by reflow soldering process. To reliability evaluation, thermal shock test was conducted between $-40^{\circ}C\;and\;+125^{\circ}C$ for 2,000 cycles, 10 minute dwell time, respectively. Also we analyzed the IMCs of solder joint using by SEM and EDX. To compare with bonding strength, resistor and QFP were tested shear strength and $45^{\circ}$ lead pull strength, respectively. From these results, optimized number of cycles was proposed with variation of bonding strength under thermal shock.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.48 no.11
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• pp.1035-1040
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• 2010

The research efforts on GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) keep increasing due to their significant impact on the illumination industry. Surface mount technology (SMT) is widely used to mount the LED packages for practical application. In surface mount soldering both the device body and leads are intentionally heated by a reflow process. We studied on the effects of multiple reflows on microstructural variation and joint strength of the solder joints between the LED package and the substrate. In this study, Pb-free Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder and a finished pad with organic solderability preservatives (OSP) were employed. A $Cu_6Sn_5$ intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was formed during the multiple reflows, and the thickness of the IMC layerincreased with an increasing number of reflows. The shear force decreased after three reflows. From the observation of the fracture surface after a shear test, partially brittle fractures were observed after five reflows.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.71-77
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• 2012

We studied the effect of heat treatment on the microstructures and mechanical strength of the solder joints in the Light Emitting Diode (LED) packages. The commercial LED packages were mounted on the a flame resistance-4 (FR4) Printed Circuit Board (PCB) in the reflow process, and then the joints were aged at $125^{\circ}C$ for 100, 200, 300, 500 and 1000 hours, respectively. After the heat treatment, we measured the shear strength of the solder joints between the PCB and the LED packages to evaluate their mechanical property. We used Pb-free Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder to bond between the LED packages and the PCBs using two different surface finishes, Electroless Nickel-Immersion Gold (ENIG) and Electroless Nickel-Electroless Palladium-Immersion Gold (ENEPIG). The microstructure of the solder joints was observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). (Cu,Ni)6Sn5 intermetallic compounds (IMCs) formed between the solder and the PCB, and the thickness of the IMCs was increased with increasing aging time. The shear strength for the ENIG finished LED package increased until aging for 300 h and then decreased with increasing aging time. On the other hand, in the case of an ENEPIG finished LED package, the shear strength decreased after aging for 500 h.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.842-851
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• 2009

The long-term reliability of Sn-0.3wt%Ag-0.7wt%Cu solder joints was evaluated and compared with Sn-3.0wt%Ag-0.5wt%Cu under thermal shock conditions. Test vehicles were prepared to use Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder alloys. To compare the shear strength of the solder joints, 0603, 1005, 1608, 2012, 3216 and 4232 multi-layer ceramic chip capacitors were used. A reflow soldering process was utilized in the preparation of the test vehicles involving a FR-4 material-based printed circuit board (PCB). To compare the shear strength degradation following the thermal shock cycles, a thermal shock test was conducted up to 2,000 cycles at temperatures ranging from $-40^{\circ}C$ to $85^{\circ}C$, with a dwell time of 30 min at each temperature. The shear strength of the solder joints of the chip capacitors was measured at every 500 cycles in each case. The intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of the solder joint interfaces werealso analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that the reliability of Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu solder joints was very close to that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu. Consequently, it was confirmed that Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu solder alloy with a low silver content can be replaced with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.35-42
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• 2024

Recently, with the miniaturization and high integration of semiconductor chips, the bump bridge phenomenon caused by fine pitches is drawing attention as a problem. Accordingly, Cu pillar bump, which can minimize the bump bridge phenomenon, is widely applied in the semiconductor package industry for fine pitch applications. When exposed to a high-temperature environment, the thickness of the intermetallic compound (IMC) formed at the joint interface increases, and at the same time, Kirkendall void is formed and grown inside some IMC/Cu and IMC interfaces. Therefore, it is important to control the excessive growth of IMC and the formation and growth of Kirkendall voids because they weaken the mechanical reliability of the joints. Therefore, in this study, isothermal aging evaluation of Cu pillar bump joints with a CS (Cu+ Sn-1.8Ag Solder) structure was performed and the corresponding results was reported.