• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.299-307
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• 2022

Gold plating is used as a coating of connector in printed circuit boards, ceramic integrated circuit packages, semiconductor devices and so on, because the film has excellent electric conductivity, solderability and chemical properties such as durability to acid and other chemicals. In most cases, internal connection between device and package and external terminals for connecting packaging and printed circuit board are electroless Ni-P plating followed by immersion Au plating (ENIG) to ensure connection reliability. The deposition behavior and film properties of electroless Au plating are affected by P content, grain size and mixed impurity components in the electroless Ni-P alloy film used as the underlayer plating. In this study, the correlation between electroless nickel plating used as a underlayer layer and cyanide-free electroless Au plating using thiomalic acid as a complexing agent and aminoethanethiol as a reducing agent was investigated.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.27-33
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• 2008

With increasing use of portable appliances such as PDA and cellular phone, changing environment of applications requires higher solder joint reliability. The ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold) process has been widely used for fine pitch SMT (Surface Mount Technology) and BGA (Ball Grid Array) packaged devices due to its benefits including excellent solderability, high uniformity and substantial legibility throughout the packaging process. Its brittle fracture of solder, however, has received increasingly attentions. It was Down that fracture brittleness is mainly related with black pad resulting from galvanic nickel corrosion and P-enriched layer formation between the IMC (Intermetallic Compounds) and electroless nickel layer. Theoretically, smooth electroless Ni layer was blown to have a advantages in minimizing the black pad phenomenon by uniform solution exchange during immersion gold plating. Nevertheless, how to control the surface morphology of electroless Ni layer has been hardly blown. This study investigates an effect of surface morphology of Cu underlayer on surface morphology of electroless Ni layer. To obtain various kinds of surface morphology of Cu layer, two types of Cu etching chemical and a number of Cu etching treatment were applied.

• 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.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.47-53
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• 2015

The effects of electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finishes on the in-situ intermetallics reaction and the electromigration (EM) reliability of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) solder bump were systematically investigated. After as-bonded, $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ intermetallic compound (IMC) was formed at the interface of the ENIG surface finish at solder top side, while at the OSP surface finish at solder bottom side,$ Cu_6Sn_5$ and $Cu_3Sn$ IMCs were formed. Mean time to failure on SAC305 solder bump at $130^{\circ}C$ with a current density of $5.0{\times}10^3A/cm^2$ was 78.7 hrs. EM open failure was observed at bottom OSP surface finish by fast consumption of Cu atoms when electrons flow from bottom Cu substrate to solder. In-situ scanning electron microscope analysis showed that IMC growth rate of ENIG surface finish was much lower than that of the OSP surface finish. Therefore, EM reliability of ENIG surface finish was higher than that of OSP surface finish due to its superior barrier stability to IMC reaction.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.80-87
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• 2008

Many researches related to the reliability of Pb-free solder joints with PCB (printed circuit board) surface finish under thermal or vibration stresses are in progress, because the electronics is operating in hash environment. Therefore, it is necessary to assess Pb-free solder joints life with PCB surface finish under thermal and mechanical stresses. We have investigated 4-points bending fatigue lifetime of Pb-free solder joints with OSP (organic solderability preservative) and ENIG (electroless nickel and immersion gold) surface finish. To predict the bending fatigue life of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joints, we use the test coupons mounted 192 BGA (ball grid array) package to be added the thermal stress by conducting thermal shock test, 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 cycles, respectively. An 4-point bending test is performed in force controlling mode. It is considered that as a failure when the resistance of daisy-chain circuit of test coupons reaches more than $1,000{\Omega}$. Finally, we obtained the solder joints fatigue life with OSP and ENIG surface finish using by Weibull probability distribution.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.219-221
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• 2005

Sn-9Zn solder balls were bonded to Cu, ENIG (Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold) and electrolytic Au/Ni pads, and the effect of aging on their joint reliability was investigated. The interfacial products were different from the general reaction layer formed in a Sn-base solder. The intermetallic compounds formed in the solder/Cu joint were $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ and $Cu_{6}Sn_{5}$. After aging treatment, voids formed irregularly at the bottom side of the solder because of Sn diffusion into the $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ IMC. In the case of the solder/ENIG joint, $AuZn_{3}$ IMCs were formed at the interface. In the case of the Au/Ni/Cu substrate, an $AuZn_{3}$ IMC layer formed at the interface due to the fast reaction between Au and Zn. In addition, the $AuZn_{3}$ IMC layer became detached from the interface after reflow. When the aging time was extended to 100 h, $Ni_{5}Zn_{21}$ IMC was observed on the Ni substrate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2009

ENIG(Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold) is the surface treatment method that is used most widely at fine pitch's SMT and BGA packaging process. In this paper, we have studied the effect of P content variation during ENIG process on those phenomena related to the solder joint. The effect of P content was discussed using the results obtained from FE-SEM, EPMA, EDS and FIB. Finally, it was concluded that the more P-content in Ni layer, the thicker P-rich layer.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.25-27
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• 2005

Sn-9Zn solder balls were bonded to Cu and ENIG (Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold) pads, and the effect of aging on their joint reliability was investigated. The interfacial products were different from the general reaction layer formed in a Sn-base solder. The intermetallic compounds formed in the solder/Cu joint were $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ and $Cu_{6}Sn_{5}$. After aging treatment, voids formed irregularly at the bottom side of the solder because of Sn diffusion into the $Cu_{5}Zn_{8}$ IMC. In the case of the solder/ENIG joint, $AuZn_{3}$ IMCs were formed at the interface. In the case of the Sn-9Zn/ENIG, the shear strength remained nearly constant in spite of aging for 1000 hours at $150^{\circ}C$. On the other hand, in the case of the Sn-9Zn/Cu, the shear strength significantly decreased after aging at $150^{\circ}C$ for 100hours and then remained constant by further prolonged aging. Therefore, the protective plating layer such as ENIG must be used to ensure the mechanical reliability of the Sn-9Zn/Cu joint.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.261-266
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• 2009

The mechanical and electrical properties of ball grid array (BGA) solder joints were measured, consisting of Sn-3.5Ag, with organic solderability preservative (OSP)-finished Cu pads and Electroless Nickel/Immersion Gold (ENIG) surface finishes. The mechanical properties were measured by die shear test. When ENIG PCB was upper joint and OSP PCB was lower joint, the highest shear force showed at the third reflow. When OSP PCB was upper joint and ENIG PCB was lower joint, the highest shear force showed at the forth reflow. For both joints, after the die shear results reached the highest shear force, shear force decreased as a function of increasing reflow number. Electrical property of the solder joint decreased with the function of increasing reflow number. The scanning electron microscope results show that the IMC thickness at the bonding interface gets thicker while the number of reflow increases.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.33-38
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• 2009

The use of portable devices has created the need for new reliability criterion of drop impact tests because of the tendency to accidentally drop in the use of these devices. The effects of different PCB surface finishes (organic solderability preservative (OSP) and electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG)) and high temperature storage (HTS) test on the drop reliability were studied. Various drop test conditions were used to evaluate a drop reliability of assemblies to endure such impact and shock load. In the case of the as-reflowed samples (no HTS test), the SAC/OSP boards exhibited a better drop impact reliability than that of SAC/ENIG. However, the reverse was true if HTS test is performed. In addition, significant decrease of drop reliability was observed for both SAC/ENIG and SAC/OSP assemblies after HTS test. It was also observed that the thickness of intermetallic compound layer do play an important role in the brittle fracture of drop test.