Mg_(2)Sn-induced whisker growth on the surfaces of Mg/Sn/Mg ultrasonic-assisted soldering joints

In this paper,the phenomena of Mg_(2)Sn-induced Sn whisker growth were explored on the surfaces of Mg/Sn/Mg ultrasonic-assisted soldering joints after aging treatment.The in-situ observation and thermal analysis confirmed that the formation and the corrosion of Mg_(2)Sn nanoparticles were the dominant reason of Sn whisker growth.The Mg_(2)Sn accumulation at the grain boundaries would pin the dislocation slip and affect the continuity of whisker growth,and the boundary angle would thus play a decisive role in the growth shape of Sn whiskers due to the pining effect of Mg_(2)Sn.This study might be conducive to elucidating the growth behavior of Sn whiskers and provide the exploration strategy to further improve the bonding strength of Mg/Sn/Mg ultrasonic-assisted soldering joints.

Research Progress on the Solder Joint Reliability of Electronics Using in Deep Space Exploration

The spacecraft for deep space exploration missions will face extreme environments,including cryogenic temperature,intense radiation,wide-range temperature variations and even the combination of conditions mentioned above.Harsh environments will lead to solder joints degradation or even failure,resulting in damage to onboard electronics.The research activities on high reliability solder joints using in extreme environments can not only reduce the use of onboard protection devices,but effectively improve the overall reliability of spacecraft,which is of great significance to the aviation industry.In this paper,we review the reliability research on SnPb solder alloys,Sn-based lead-free solder alloys and In-based solder alloys in extreme environments,and try to provide some suggestions for the follow-up studies,which focus on solder joint reliability under extreme environments.

Drop failure modes of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joints in wafer level chip scale package

To reveal the drop failure modes of the wafer level chip scale packages （WLCSPs） with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joints, board level drop tests were performed according to the JEDEC standard. Six failure modes were identified, i.e., short FR-4 cracks and complete FR-4 cracks at the printing circuit board （PCB） side, split between redistribution layer （RDL） and Cu under bump metallization （UBM）, RDL fracture, bulk cracks and partial bulk and intermetallic compound （IMC） cracks at the chip side. For the outmost solder joints, complete FR-4 cracks tended to occur, due to large deformation of PCB and low strength of FR-4 dielectric layer. The formation of complete FR-4 cracks largely absorbed the impact energy, resulting in the absence of other failure modes. For the inner solder joints, the absorption of impact energy by the short FR-4 cracks was limited, resulting in other failure modes at the chip side.

Study on solder joint reliability of ceramic ball grid array component based on design of experiment method

Four process parameters, pad diameter, stencil thickness, ball diameter and stand-off were chosen as four control factors. By using an L25 （5^6 ） orthogonal array the ceramic ball grid array （ CBGA ） solder joints which have 25 different combinations of process parameters were designed. The numerical models of all the 25 CBGA solder joints were developed using the Sugrace Evolver. Utilizing the sugrace coordinate exported from the 25 CBGA solder joints numerical models, the finite element analysis models were set up and the nonlinear finite element analysis of the CBGA solder joints under thermal cycles were pegrormed by ANSYS. The thermal fatigue life of CBGA solder joint was calculated using Coffin-Manson equation. Based on the calculated thermal fatigue life results, the range analysis and the variance analysis were pegrormed. The results show that the fatigue life of CBGA solder joint is affected by the pad diameter, the stencil thickness, the ball diameter and the stand-off in a descending order, the best combination of process parameters results in the longest fatigue life is 0.07 mm stand-off, 0.125 mm stencil thickness of, 0.85 mm ball diameter and 0. 89 mm pad diameter. With 95% confidence the pad diameter has a significant effect on the reliability of CBGA solder joints whereas the stand-off, the stencil thickness and the ball diameter have little effect on the reliability of CBGA solder joints.

EFFECTS OF LEAD WIDTHS AND PITCHES ON RELIABILITY OF QUAD FLAT PACKAGE(QFP)SOLDERED JOINTS

The finite element method（FEM） is used to analyze the effects of lead widths and pitches on reliability of soldered joints. The optimum simulation for QFP devices is also researched. The results indicate that when the lead pitches are the same, the maximum equivalent stress of the soldered joints increases with the increasing of lead widths, while the reliability of the soldered joints reduces. When the lead widths are the same, the maximum equivalent stress of the soldered joints doesn＇t decrease completely with the increasing of lead pitches, a minimum value of the maximum equivalent stress values exists in all the curves. Under this condition the maximum equivalent stress of the soldewed joints is relatively the least, the reliability of soldered joints is high and the assembly is excellent. The simulating results indicate the best parameter： The lead width is 0.2 mm and lead pitch is 0.3 mm （the distance between two leads is 0.1 mm）, which are benefited for the micromation of QFP devices now. The minimum value of the maximum equivalent stress of soldered joints exists while lead width is 0.25 mm and lead pitch is 0.35 mm （the distance between two leads is 0.1 mm）, the devices can serve for a long time and the reliability is the highest, the assembly is excellent. The simulating results also indicate the fact that the lead width is 0.15 mm and lead pitch is 0.2 mm maybe the limit of QFP, which is significant for the high lead count and micromation of assembly.

QUICK ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY FOR RELIABILITY OF SOLDER JOINTS IN BALL GRID ARRAY (BGA) ASSEMBLY——PART Ⅰ: CREEP CONSTITUTIVE RELATION AND FATIGUE MODEL

In this study, a new unified creep constitutive relation and a mod- ified energy-based fatigue model have been established respectively to describe the creep flow and predict the fatigue life of Sn-Pb solders. It is found that the relation successfully elucidates the creep mechanism related to current constitutive relations. The model can be used to describe the temperature and frequency dependent low cycle fatigue behavior of the solder. The relation and the model are further employed in part Ⅱ to develop the numerical simulation approach for the long-term reliability assessment of the plastic ball grid array (BGA) assembly.

FORMATION AND CHANGE OF AuSn_4 COMPOUNDS AT INTERFACE BETWEEN PBGA SOLDER BALL AND Au/Ni/Cu METALLIZATION DURING LASER AND INFRA-RED REFLOW SOLDERING

Interactions between 63Sn37Pb solder and PBGA metallization (Au/Ni/Cu) duringlaser and infrared reflow soldering were studied. During laser reflow soldering process,a thin layer of AuSn_4 was observed at the interface of the solder bumps, its morphologywas strongly dependent on the laser reflow power and heating time. The solder bumpsformed by the first laser reflow was reflowed again to form the solder joints. TheAuSn_4 compounds formed in the first laser reflow process dissolved into the bulk solderafter the secondary infrared reflow process. The needle-like AuSn_4 changed into rod-like, and distributed inside the solder near the solder/pad interface.

Thermo-mechanical fatigue reliability optimization of PBGA solder joints based on ANN-PSO

Based on a method combined artificial neural network (ANN) with particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, the thermo-mechanical fatigue reliability of plastic ball grid array (PBGA) solder joints was studied. The simulation experiments of accelerated thermal cycling test were performed by ANSYS software. Based on orthogonal array experiments, a back-propagation artificial neural network (BPNN) was used to establish the nonlinear multivariate relationship between thermo-mechanical fatigue reliability and control factors. Then, PSO was applied to obtaining the optimal levels of control factors by using the output of BPNN as the affinity measure. The results show that the control factors, such as print circuit board (PCB) size, PCB thickness, substrate size, substrate thickness, PCB coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), substrate CTE, silicon die CTE, and solder joint CTE, have a great influence on thermo-mechanical fatigue reliability of PBGA solder joints. The ratio of signal to noise of ANN-PSO method is 51.77 dB and its error is 33.3% less than that of Taguchi method. Moreover, the running time of ANN-PSO method is only 2% of that of the BPNN. These conclusions are verified by the confirmative experiments.

Experimental and Finite Element Method Studies of J-Lead Solder Joint Reliability

A comprehensive experimental and numerical study of solder joints for plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) 84-Pin, 1.27 mm pitch was carried out. The reliability of solder joints was assessed through accelerated thermal cycling at the temperature range of - 55℃-125℃. The samples were taken out to observe the evolution in microstructure, such as grain coarsening, initiation and propagation of cracks. It was found that the Pb-rich phases segregated gradually and formed a continuous layer adjacent to the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer with increasing the number of thermal cycles, resulting in cracks near the solder/lead interface. The response of stress and strain was studied using nonlinear finite element method (FEM), and the results agreed well with the experimental data.

An exPerimental study of effect of solder joint geometry on thermal cycle life in SMT

The geometry of solder joint in SMT is one of the important factors whichdetermine the solder joint reliability. In this study, a type of solder joint specimen has beendesigned and is subjected to thermal cycling to failure between -55 ℃ to +125 ℃ with a 36℃/min heating and cooling rate and 10 min temperature holding times. The solder jointgeometry is castellated and controlled with different solder fillet shape and stand off height.A statistical analysis of the scattered thermal cycle lives of solder joints by two parameterWeibull's probability density function has been carried out in this paper. The experimentalresults show that the more reliable solder joint geometry has flat or slight convex solderfillet with a stand off height larger than 0.1 mm. The results may be the recommendedguideline to design optimal solder joint geometry.

Interfacial intermetallic compound growth and shear strength of low-silver SnAgCuBiNi/Cu lead-free solder joints

The growth rule of the interfacial intermetallic compound （IMC） and the degradation of shear strength of Sn-0.SAg-0.5Cu-2.0Bi-0.05Ni （SACBN）/Cu solder joints were investigated in comparison with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu （SAC305）/ Cu solder joints aging at 373, 403, and 438 K. The results show that （Cul-x,Nix）6Sn5 phase forms between the SACBN solder and Cu substrate during soldering. The interracial IMC thickens constantly with the aging time increasing, and the higher the aging temperature, the faster the IMC layer grows. Compared with the SAC305/Cu couple, the SACBN/Cu couple exhibits a lower layer growth coefficient. The activation energies of IMC growth for SACBN/Cu and SAC305/Cu couples are 111.70 and 82.35 kJ/mol, respectively. In general, the shear strength of aged solder joints declines continuously. However, SACBN/Cu solder joints exhibit a better shear strength than SAC305/Cu solder joints.

CALCULATION OF THREE－DIMENSIONAL SOLDER JOINT FORMATION IN MICROELECTRONIC SURFACE MOUNT TECHNOLOGY

A finite element analysis for calculating three-dimensional(3-D) solder joint shape between chip component and substrate pad was carried out, and the effects of solder volume and pad extension beyond the edge of component on solder joint shapes were investigated. The resonable design ranges of solder volume and pad extension have been put forward.

THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM FOR PREDICTING AND ANALYZING SOLDER JOINT SHAPE AND RELIABILITY INSMT

Solder joint reliability is one of critical problems detemining whether Sirface Mount Technology (SMT) can be used in the prohotion of important electronic products. Optimizing solder joint shape is one of effective ways to improve SMT solder joint reliability.In this paper. based on the theorem of minimum potential energy, an energy model of 3 - D solder joint shape is established,and the forma- tion of solder joint is numerically simulated by Surface Ecolver program. On the basis of the prediction of SMT solder joint shape,the mechanical model of analyzing solder joint reliability is established. An elasto - plasto - creep mateial model and its mechanical constitutive equaton are established for SnPb solder alloy, and the stress/strain response of SMT solder joint under thermal cyclical loabing is ana- lyzed with nonlinear 3 - D FEM. The fatigue life of solder joint is predicted according to Coffin- Manson fatigue life model. An integrated system for Predicting and analyzing SMT solder joint shape and reliability(PSAR) is developed.The system can analyze efficiently SMT solder joint reliability with the variation of structural parameters in the joint and give the optimal structure.

Design of a visual system for predicting SMT solder joint shape

A visual software system has been developed for predicting and analyzing the shape of solder joints in surface mount technology (SMT). The formation of the solder joint is numerically simulated through Surface Evolver program and the calculation is automated with an additional controller. A preprocessor is developed in which process parameters determining the shape of solder joints can be input visually and transferred into Evolver program automatically. A postprocessor is built to analyze the global three dimensional shape and cross section profiles of solder fillets in multiple windows. Also, the application for predicting the solder joint shape of RC chip component is conducted with the PSJS system.

Finite element simulation for mechanical response of surface mounted solder joints under different temperature cycling

Nonlinear finite element simulation for mechanical response of surface mounted solder joint under different temperature cycling was carried out. Seven sets of parameters were used in order to evaluate the influence of temperature cycling profile parameters. The results show that temperature cycling history has significant effect on the stress response of the solder joint. Based on the concept of relative damage stress proposed by the authors, it is found that enough high temperature holding time is necessary for designing the temperature cycling profile in accelerated thermal fatigue test.

Influence of Thermal Cycling on the Microstructure and Shear Strength of Sn3.5Ag0.75Cu and Sn63Pb37 Solder Joints on Au/Ni Metallization

The influence of thermal cycling on the microstructure and joint strength of Sn3.5Ag0.75Cu （SAC） and Sn63Pb37 （SnPb） solder joints was investigated. SAC and SnPb solder balls were soldered on 0.1 and 0.9 μm Au finished metallization, respectively. After 1000 thermal cycles between -40℃ and 125℃, a very thin intermetallic compound （IMC） layer containing Au, Sn, Ni, and Cu formed at the interface between SAC solder joints and underneath metallization with 0.1 μm Au finish, and （Au, Ni, Cu）Sn4 and a very thin AuSn-Ni-Cu IMC layer formed between SAC solder joints and underneath metallization with 0.9 μm Au finish. For SnPb solder joints with 0.1 μm Au finish, a thin （Ni, Cu, Au）3Sn4 IMC layer and a Pb-rich layer formed below and above the （Au, Ni）Sn4 IMC, respectively. Cu diffused through Ni layer and was involved into the IMC formation process. Similar interfacial microstructure was also found for SnPb solder joints with 0.9μm Au finish. The results of shear test show that the shear strength of SAC solder joints is consistently higher than that of SnPb eutectic solder joints during thermal cycling.

Effect of Lanthanum on Driving Force for Cu_6Sn_5 Growth and Improvement of Solder Joint Reliability

By means of adding low content of rare earth element La into Sn60 Pb40 solder alloy, the growth of Cu 6Sn 5 intermetallic compound at the interface of solder joint is hindered, and the thermal fatigue life of solder joint is increased by 2 times. The results of thermodynamic calculation based on diffusion kinetics show that, the driving force for Cu 6Sn 5 growth is lowered by adding small content of La in Sn60 Pb40 solder alloy. Meanwhile, there is an effective local mole fraction range of La, in which, 0 18% is the limited value and 0 08% is the best value.

The influence of temperature on creep behavior of Cu particle enhanced SnPb based composite soldered joints

Creep property of solder alloys is one of the important factors to affect the reliabdity of soldered joints in SMT （surface mount technology）. Particle-enhancement is a way to improve the properties of solder alloys and has caused much more attention than before. Temperatures applied to soldered joints are one of the primary factors of affecting creep properties of particle enhancement composite soldered joints. In this paper single shear lap creep specimens with a 1 mm^2 cross-sectional area were fabricated using Cu particle enhancement 63Sn37 Pb based composite soldered joints and 63Sn37 Pb eutectic soldered joints to examine the influence of temperature on creep behavior of soldered joints. Results indicated that the creep resistance of soldered joints of Cu particle enhancement 63Sn37Pb based composite soldered joint was generally superior to that of the conventional 63Sn37Pb soldered joint. At the same time, creep rupture life of the composite soldered joint was declined with increasing temperature and drop faster than that of the conventional 63Sn37 Pb eutectic soldered joint.

Plastic characterization and performance of SnAgCuBiNi/Cu lead-free BGA solder joints

Nanoindentation test is performed on study the plastic and creep properties of the Sn-Ag-Cu （SAC） lead-free ball grid array （ BGA ） solder joints. The dynamic hardness of two kinds of solder joints decreases with indentation depth increase. SACO705 BiNi/ Cu exhibits a higher ultimate dynamic hardness and a smaller indentation depth than SAC305/ Cu. Then the strain hardening phenomenon of SAC305/ Cu is more obvious compared to that of SACO705 BiNi/ Cu. The indentation creep of SACO705BiNi/ Cu solder joint is lower than that of SAC305/ Cu solder joint before and after thermal shock. The creep rate sensitive index of SACBiNi/Cu solder joint is lower than that of solder joint. SACO705BiNi/Cu solder joint is superior to SAC305/Cu solder joint in the anti-creep property. The plasticity of SACOTOSBiNi/Cu and SAC305/Cu solder joints are similar. Compared with SAC305 solder, the SACO705 BiNi solder pe^forms higher hardness and solder creep resistance and still maintains a good plasticity.

The Numerical Analysis of Strain Behavior at Solder Joint and Interface of Flip Chip Package

The flip chip package is a kind of advanced electri ca l packages. Due to the requirement of miniaturization, lower weight, higher dens ity and higher performance in the advanced electric package, it is expected that flip chip package will soon be a mainstream technology. The silicon chip is dir ectly connected to printing circuit substrate by SnPb solder joints. Also, the u nderfill, a composite of polymer and silica particles, is filled in the gap betw een the chip and substrate around the solder joints to improve the reliabili ty of solder joints. When flip chip package specimen is tested with thermal cycl ing, the cyclic stress/strain response that exists at the underfill interfaces and solder joints may result in interfacial crack initiation and propagation. Therefore, the chip cracking and the interfacial delamination between underfill and chip corner have been investigated in many studies. Also, most researches h ave focused on the effect of fatigue and creep properties of solder joint induce d by the plastic strain alternation and accumulation. The nuderfill must have lo w viscosity in the liquid state and good adhesion to the interface after solidif ying. Also, the mechanical behavior of such epoxy material has much dependen ce on temperature in its glass transition temperature range that is usually cove red by the temperature range of thermal cycling test. Therefore, the materia l behavior of underfill exists a significant non-linearity and the assumption o f linear elastic can lack for accuracy in numerical analysis. Through numerical analysis, this study had some comparisons about the effect of linear and non -linear properties of underfill on strain behaviors around the interface of fli p chip assembly. Especially, the deformation tendency inside solder bumps could be predicted. Also, it is worthily mentioned that we have pointed out which comp onent of plastic strain, thus, either normal or shear, has dominant influence to the fatigue and creep of solder bump, which have not brought up before. About the numerical analysis to the thermal plastic strain occurs in flip chip i nterconnection during thermal cycling test, a commercial finite element software , namely, ANSYS, was employed to simulate the thermal cycling test obeyed by MIL-STD-883C. The temperatures of thermal cycling ranged from -55 ℃ to 125 ℃ with ramp rate of 36 ℃/min and a dwell time of 25 min at peak temperature. T he schematic drawing of diagonal cross-section of flip chip package composed of FR-4 substrate, silicon chip, underfill and solder bump was shown as Fig.1. Th e numerical model was two-dimensional (2-D) with plane strain assumption and o nly one half of the cross-section was modeled due to geometry symmetry. The dim ensions and boundary conditions of numerical model were shown in Fig.2. The symm etric boundary conditions were applied along the left edge of the model, and the left bottom corner was additional constrained in vertical direction to prevent body motion. The finite element meshes of overall and local numerical model was shown as Fig.3. In this study, two cases of material model were used to describe the material behavior of the underfill: the case1 was linear elastic model that assumed Young’s Modulus (E) and thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) were consta nt during thermal cycling; the case2 was MKIN model (in ANSYS) that had nonlinea r temperature-dependent stress-strain relationship and temperature-dependent CTE. The material model applied to the solder bump was ANAND model (in ANSYS) th at described time-dependent plasticity phenomenon of viscoplastic material. Bot h the FR-4 substrate and silicon chip were assumed as temperature-independent elastic material; moreover, FR-4 substrate is orthotropic while silicon chip is isotropic. From the comparison between numerical results of linear and nonlinear material a ssumption of underfill, (i.e. case1 and case2), the quantities of plastic strain around the interconnection from case1 are higher than that in case2. Thus, the linear