Morphology and electrical contact properties of electrical connection materials in corrosive atmosphere

The impact mechanism of environmental fac tors, such as corrosive atmosphere, on connector materials was investigated, and the porosity of gold plating was tested. Series of inspections and analytical research meth ods were introduced in this article. The surface morphology of specimens after corrosion was observed by stereoscopic microscope and scanning electron microscope. Chemical constitution was examined by Xray energy spectrum. The contact resistances were measured by fourpoint method. The experiment results show that after exposure to certain environment, the corrosion products, such as Cu20, Cu（NO3）2.3H20, and NiO, are observed on the surface of the specimens without gold coatings, whereas the corrosion products appear to have circleshaped spots on goldplating surface after corrosion test, which indicate that the gold plating has good corrosion protection. The porosity is increased with the increase of corrosion time for every kind of specimens gold plated, and the corrosion degree of gold plating specimens is decreased with the increase of the thickness of gold coatings. The static contact resistances of circleshaped spots appear higher contact resistance than normal value, which can reach to 2,000 mr2 nearly. It is found that the high and unstable contact resistance of the pore and products is more likely to cause contact failure.

Microstructure and mechanical property of Sn–Ag–Cu solder material

Among the lead-free solder materials,Sn-Ag-Cu alloys have many advantages,such as good wetting property,superior interfacial properties and high creep resistance.In this article,the organization and welding performance of Sn-Ag-Cu material were investigated.The surface morphology of the two alloys was observed by stereoscopic microscope and scanning electron microscope （SEM）.Chemical constitution was examined by X-ray energy-dispersive spectroscopy （EDS）.The mechanical properties of Sn-Ag-Cu solder were evaluated systematically compared with those of Sn-Cu solder.The results show that Sn-Ag-Cu solder based on different solder pads has different welding properties.The thickness of intermetallic compound （IMC） at the interface increases with aging time.For the gold-plated pads,there are a large number of IMC graphic,and in the welding interface,it can reduce the reliability of electrical connection.The Sn-Ag-Cu solder joints show a superior mechanical property over the traditional Sn-Cu solder.The number of dimples decreases and that of cavities increases for Sn-Cu0.7 alloy and the fracture surfaces of Sn-Ag3.0-Cu0.5 alloy have many small size dimples which are homogeneously distributed.