• 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.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.73-79
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• 2003

With the variation of Ag concentration in bath, current density, duty cycle, additive and agitation for electroplating of Sn-Ag solder, the compositions and the morphologies of solder were studied. It was possible to controll Ag content in Sn-Ag solder by varying Ag concentration in bath and current density. The microstructure size of Sn-Ag solder decreased with increasing current density. Duty cycle of pulse electroplating and quantity of additive affected on Ag content of deposit and surface roughness. In this work eutectic Sn-Ag solder bumps with fine pitch of 30 $\mu\textrm{m}$ and height of 15 $\mu\textrm{m}$ was formed successfully. The Ag content of electrodeposited solder was confirmed by EDS and WDS analyses and the surface morphologies was analyzed by SEM and 3D surface analyzer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.151-156
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• 2007

In this paper, the creep characteristics of lead and lead-free solder joint were investigated using the QFP(Quad Flat Package) creep test. Two kind of solder pastes(Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-0.2Sb-0.4Ag-37.4Pb) were applied to the QFP solder joints and each specimen was checked the external and internal failures(i.e., wetting failure, void, pin hole, poor-heel fillet) by digital microscope and X-ray inspection. The creep test was conducted at the temperatures of $100^{\circ}C$ and $130^{\circ}C$ under the load of 15$\sim$20% of average pull strength in solder joints. The creep characteristics of each solder joints were compared using the creep strain-time curve and creep strain rate-stress curves. Through the comparison, the Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu solder joints have higher creep resistance than that of Sn-0.3Sb-0.4Ag-37.4Pb. Also, the grain boundary sliding in the fracture surface and the necking of solder joint were observed by FE-SEM.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.42-47
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• 2000

The object of this study is to estimate Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga solder alloy as a substitute for Sn-37Pb alloy. For Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga alloys, Ag, Bi and Ga contents are varied. (Ag : 1~5%, Ga : 3%, Bi : 3~6%) Comparing to Sn-37Pb alloy Sn-Ag-Bi-Ga alloys have wider melting temperature range up to max. $18.7^{\circ}C$. With increasing Ag, Bi contents, the wettability of the alloys increased up to max. 6.6 mN. The vickers hardness of the alloys was max. 46.4 Hv. The ultimate tensile stress of the alloys was max. 60.3 MPa and the elongation was max. 1.2%. The joint strength between circuit board and solder was max. 55.5 N and the joint strength between connector and solder was max. 176.1 N. There were no cracks in this alloys after thermal shock test.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.91-96
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• 2002

Three different kinds of substrate used in this study : bare Cu, electroless Ni/Cu substrate with a Nilayer thickness of $5\mu\textrm{m}$, immersion Au/electroless Ni/Cu substrate with the Au and Ni layer of $0.15\mu\textrm{m}$ and $5\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness, respectively. The wettability and interfacial tension between various substrate and Sn-3.5Ag solder were examined as a function of soldering temperature, types of flux. The wettability of Sn-3.5Ag solder increased with soldering temperature and solid content of flux. The wettability of Sn-3.5Ag solder was affected by the substrate metal finish used, i.e., nickel, gold and copper. Intermetallic compound formation between liquid solder and substrate reduced the interfacial energy and decreased wettability.

• 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.19 no.4
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• pp.406-412
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• 2001

This study is focussed on the numerical prediction of the thermal fatigue life of a ${\mu}BGA$(Micro Ball Grid Array) solder joint. Numerical method is used to perform three-dimensional finite element analysis for Sn-37mass%Pb. Sn-3.5mass%Ag solder alloys during the given thermal cycling. Strain values, along with the result of mechanical fatigue tests for solder alloys were then used to predict the solder joint fatigue life using the Coffin-Manson equation. In this study, a practical correlation for the prediction of the thermal fatigue life is suggested by using the dimensionless variable $\gamma$. As a result. it could be found that Sn-3.5mass%Ag has longer fatigue life than Sn-37mass%Pb in low cycle fatigue. In addition. the result with ${\gamm}ashow$a good agreement with the FEA results.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.126-129
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• 2002

This article presents that the affecting factors to solderability and initial reliability. It was discussed that effect of the solder ball hardness and composition on the reliability of solder joints. In this study, lead free solder alloys with compositions of Sn-Cu, Sn-Ag, Sn-Ag-Cu, Sn-Ag-Cu-Bi were applied to the $\muBGA$ packages. As a result of experiments, the high degree of hardness with the displacement of 0.22mm was obtained Sn-2.0Ag-0.7Cu-3.0Bi. The shear strength of lead free solder was higher than of Sn-37Pb solder, and it was increased about 150% in Sn-2.0Ag-0.7Cu-3.0Bi.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.61-67
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• 2005

Since lead (Pb)-free solders for electronics have higher melting points than that of eutectic Sn-Pb solder, they need higher soldering temperatures. In order to decrease the soldering temperature we tried to coat Sn-Bi layer on $Sn-3.5\%Ag$ solder by electroplating, which applies the mechanism of transient liquid phase bonding to soldering. During heating Bi will diffuse into the $Sn-3.5\%Ag$ solder and this results in decreasing soldering temperature. As bonding samples, the 1608 capacitor electroplated with Sn, and PCB, its surface was finished with electroless-plated Ni/Au, were selected. The $Sn-95.7\%Bi$ coated Sn-3.5Ag was supplied as a solder between the capacitor and PCB land. The samples were reflowed at $220^{\circ}C$, which was lower than that of normal reflow temperature, $240\~250^{\circ}C$, for the Pb-free. As experimental result, the joint of $Sn-95.7\%Bi$ coated Sn-3.5Ag showed high shear strength. In the as-reflowed state, the shear strength of the coated solder showed 58.8N, whereas those of commercial ones were 37.2N (Sn-37Pb), 31.4N (Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu), and 40.2N (Sn-8Zn-3Bi). After thermal shock of 1000 cycles between $-40^{\circ}C$ and $+125^{\circ}C$, shear strength of the coated solder showed 56.8N, whereas the previous commercial solders were in the range of 32.3N and 45.1N. As the microstructures, in the solder $Ag_3Sn$ intermetallic compound (IMC), and along the bonded interface $Ni_3Sn_4$ IMC were observed.

• 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.