• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.7-13
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• 2012

A lack of study on the dynamic tensile strengths of Sn-based solder joints at high strain rates was the motivation for the present study. A modified miniature Charpy impact testing machine instrumented with an impact sensor was built to quantitatively evaluate the dynamic impact strength of a solder joint under tensile impact loading. This study evaluated the tensile strength of lead-free solder ball joints at strain rates from $1.8{\times}10^3s^{-1}$ and $8.5{\times}10^3s^{-1}$. The maximum tensile strength of the solder ball joint decreases as the load speed increases in the testing range. This tensile strength represented that of the interface because of the interfacial fracture site. The tensile strengths of solder joints between Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and copper substrate were between 21.7 MPa and 8.6 MPa in the high strain range.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.30-32
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• 2006

The interfacial reaction and reliability of eutectic Sn-Pb and Pb-free eutectic Sn-Ag ball-grid-array (BGA) solders with an immersion Ag-plated Cu substrate were evaluated following isothermal aging at $150^{\circ}C$. During reflowing, the topmost Ag layer was dissolved completely into the molten solder, leaving the Cu layer exposed to the molten solder for both solder systems. A typical scallop-type Cu-Sn intermetallic compound (IMC) layer was formed at both of the solder/Cu interfaces during reflowing. The thickness of the Cu-Sn IMCs for both solders was found to increase linearly with the square root of isothermal aging time. The growth of the $Cu_3Sn$ layer for the Sn-37Pb solder was faster than that for the Sn-3.5Ag solder, In the case of the Sn-37Pb solder, the formation of the Pb-rich layer on the Cu-Sn IMC layer retarded the growth of the $Cu_6Sn_5$ IMC layer, and thereby increased the growth rate of the $Cu_3Sn$ IMC layer. In the ball shear test conducted on the Sn-37Pb/Ag-plated Cu joint after aging for 500h, fracturing occurred at the solder/$Cu_6Sn_5$ interface. The shear failure was significantly related to the interfacial adhesion strength between the Pb-rich and $Cu_6Sn_5$ IMC layers. On the other hand, all fracturing occurred in the bulk solder for the Sn-3.5Ag/Ag-plated Cu joint, which confirmed its desirable joint reliability.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.166-173
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• 2014

The effects of printed circuit board electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finishes on the electromigration reliability and shear strength of Sn-3.5Ag Pb-free solder bump were systematically investigated. In-situ annealing tests were performed in a scanning electron microscope chamber at 130, 150, and $170^{\circ}C$ in order to investigate the growth kinetics of intermetallic compound (IMC). Electromigration lifetime and failure modes were investigated at $150^{\circ}C$ and $1.5{\times}10^5A/cm^2$, while ball shear tests and failure mode analysis were conducted under the high-speed conditions from 10 mm/s to 3000 mm/s. The activation energy of ENIG and OSP surface finishes during annealing were evaluated as 0.84 eV and 0.94 eV, respectively. The solder bumps with ENIG surface finish showed longer electromigration lifetime than OSP surface finish. Shear strengths between ENIG and OSP were similar, and the shear energies decreased with increasing shear speed. Failure analysis showed that electrical and mechanical reliabilities were very closely related to the interfacial IMC stabilities.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.545-551
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• 2012

In semiconductor manufacturing, the circuit integrity of packaged BGA devices is tested by measuring electrical resistance using test sockets. Test sockets have been reported to often fail earlier than the expected life-time due to high contact resistance. This has been attributed to the formation of Sn oxide films on the Au coating layer of the probe pins loaded on the socket. Similar to contact failure, and known as "fretting", this process widely occurs between two conductive surfaces due to the continual rupture and accumulation of oxide films. However, the failure mechanism at the probe pin differs from fretting. In this study, the microstructural processes and formation mechanisms of Sn oxide films developed on the probe pin surface were investigated. Failure analysis was conducted mainly by FIB-FESEM observations, along with EDX, AES, and XRD analyses. Soft and fresh Sn was found to be transferred repeatedly from the solder bump to the Au surface of the probe pins; it was then instantly oxidized to SnO. The $SnO_2$ phase is a more stable natural oxide, but SnO has been proved to grow on Sn thin film at low temperature (< $150^{\circ}C$). Further oxidation to $SnO_2$ is thought to be limited to 30%. The SnO film grew layer by layer up to 571 nm after testing of 50,500 cycles (1 nm/100 cycle). This resulted in the increase of contact resistance and thus of signal delay between the probe pin and the solder bump.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.1843-1850
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• 2016

This study focused on predicting the fatigue life of an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) power module for electric locomotives. The effects of different wiring technologies, including aluminum wires, copper wires, aluminum ribbons, and copper ribbons, on solder fatigue life were investigated to meet the high power requirement of the IGBT module. The module's temperature distribution and solder fatigue behavior were investigated through coupled electro-thermo-mechanical analysis based on the finite element method. The ribbons attained a chip junction temperature that was 30℃ lower than that attained with conventional round wires. The ribbons also exhibited a lower plastic strain in comparison with the wires. However, the difference in plastic strain and junction temperature among the different ribbon materials was relatively small. The ribbons also exhibited different crack propagation behaviors relative to the wires. For the wires, the cracks initiated at the outmost edge of the solder, whereas for the ribbons, the cracks grew in the solder layer beneath the ribbons. Comparison of fatigue failure areas indicated that ribbon bonding technology could substantially enhance the fatigue life of IGBT modules and be a potential candidate for high power modules.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2004.02a
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• pp.37-59
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• 2004

In the case of Ni/Au finished pad on the package side, the solder joint of SnAgCu system can bring brittle fracture under impact load such as drop test. Therefore, it's difficult to prevent the brittle fracture of lead-free solder, by controlling Cu content. The failure locus existing on the interface between $(Ni,Cu)_3Sn_4\;and\;(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ IMC layers must be changed to other site in order to avoid brittle fracture due to impact load. It was not found any clear evidence that there were two IMC layers exist. But it was strongly assumed these were two layers which have different Cu-Ni composition. From the above analysis it was assumed that Cu atom in the solder alloy or substrate seemed to affect IMC composition and cause to IMC brittle fracture.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

A major failure mode for wafer level chip size package (WLCSP) is thermo-mechanical fatigue of solder joints. The mechanical strains and stresses generated by the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the die and printed circuit board (PCB) are usually the driving force for fatigue crack initiation and propagation to failure. In a WLCSP process peripheral or central bond pads from the die are redistributed into an area away using an insulating polymer layer and a redistribution metal layer, and the insulating polymer layer affects solder joints reliability by absorption of stresses generated by CTE mismatch. In this study, several insulating polymer materials were applied to WLCSP to investigate the effect of insulating material. It was found that the effect of property of insulating material on WLCSP reliability was altered with a solder ball layout of package.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.127-131
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• 2004

Package reliability test was conducted to investigate the effect of solder composition on the ball fatigue strength for BGA (Ball Grid Array) packaging. The test pieces are assembled using eutectic composition 63Sn/37Pb, 62Sn/36Pb/2Ag, and 63Sn/34.4Pb/2Ag/0.5Sb solder after pre-conditioning at MRT Lv 3 (Moisture Resistance Test Level) and then conducted under T/C (Temperature Cycle test). For each case, the ball shear strength was obtained and micro structure photos were taken. SEM (scanning electron microscope) and EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray) were used to the analyze failure mechanism. The growth rate of Au-Sn intermetallic compound in Sn63Pb34.5Ag2Sb0.5 solder was slow when compared to 63Sn/37Pb solder and 62Sn/36Pb/2Ag solder. The degradation of shear strength of solder balls caused by solder composition was discussed.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.50-55
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• 2007

The smaller size and higher integration of advanced electronic package systems result in severe electrochemical reliability issues in microelectronic packaging due to higher electric field under high temperature and humidity conditions. Under these harsh conditions, electronic components respond to applied voltages by electrochemical ionization of metal and the formation of a filament, which leads to short-circuit failure of an electronic component, which is termed electrochemical migration. This work aims to evaluate electrochemical migration susceptibility of the pure Sn, Sn-3.5Ag, Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder alloys in $Na_{2}SO_{4}$. The water drop test was performed to understand the failure mechanism in a pad patterned solder alloy. The polarization test and anodic dissolution test were performed, and ionic species and concentration were analyzed. Ag and Cu additions increased the time to failure of Pb-free solder in 0.001 wt% $Na_{2}SO_{4}$ solution at room temperature and the dendrite was mainly composed of Sn regardless of the solders. In the case of SnAg solders, when Ag and Cu added to the solders, Ag and Cu improved the passivation behavior and pitting corrosion resistance and formed inert intermetallic compounds and thus the dissolution of Ag and Cu was suppressed; only Sn was dissolved. If ionic species is mainly Sn ion, dissolution content than cathodic deposition efficiency will affect the composition of the dendrite. Therefore, Ag and Cu additions improve the electrochemical migration resistance of SnAg and SnAgCu solders.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.280-288
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• 2017

Purpose: PBA buried in underwater requires high reliability because of its mission critical characteristic and harsh operational environment during its life cycle. Therefore, various reliability improvement activities are necessary. The defect on PBA manufacturing process have been studied, as a result, many activities and standards have been presented. However, there are less studies regarding failure pattern on physical features based on design. In this paper, we studied a possible failure patten based on physical features that is related with manufacturing process of PBA. And reliability improvement design based on PoF (Physical of Failure) were intruduced in this paper. Methods: A reliability prediction simulation were performed on the components A and B of the H system using Sherlock Software which is a PoF commercial tool from DFR solution. Solder fatigue and PTH fatigue analysis based on thermal cycling profiles and random vibration was analyzed on three earthquake response spectrum. Result: It was validated that life time and reliability improvement design through solder fatigue and PTH fatigue analysis in case of component. For compoenet B, random vibration fatigue was additionally analyzed and validated reliability for earthquakes profile. Conclusion: In design stage prior to manufacturing, PoF can be analyzed, and it is possible to make a reliability improvement/validated design using design data. This study can be applied in every design step and contribute to make more stable development product.