• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.67-73
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• 2001

To investigate the relationships of solder joint characteristics with solder composition and A:V ratio (solder volume per pad area), Sn-37Pb and Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu solder balls with 330, 400, 450 and $457{\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ size were reflowed on same substrate. Sn-37Pb and Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu was reflowed at $220^{\circ}C$ and $240^{\circ}C$ respectively by IR-type soldering machine. As a result of reflowed solder- ball diameter(D) and height(H) measurement, D/H was decreased with solder ball size increment in range of 330~450 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$. But, D/H was increased in the solder joint for 457 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ size, it was caused possibly by decrement of solder ball height increment compared with solder volume increment. As a result of shear and pull test, joint strength with A:V ratio was high. Joint strength of Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu was higher than Sn-37Pb. However, Sn-37Pb had more stable solder joint of small standard deviation. A thick and clean scallop type Ni-Cu-Sn intermetallic compound layer was formed in high A:V ratio and Sn-4.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joint interface.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.33-35
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• 2006

The interactions between Cu/Sn-Ag-(Cu) and Sn-Ag-(Cu)/Ni interfacial reactions were studied during isothermal aging at $150^{\circ}C$ for up to 1000h using Cu(ENIG)/Sn-3.5Ag-(0.7Cu)/Cu(ENIG) sandwich solder joints. A typical scallop-type Cu-Sn intermetallic compound (IMC) layer formed at the upper Sn-Ag/Cu interface after reflowing, whereas a $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ IMC layer was observed at the Sn-Ag/ENIG interface. The Cu in the $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ IMC layer formed on the Ni side was sourced from the dissolution of the opposite Cu metal pad or Cu-Sn IMC layer. When the dissolved Cu arrived at the interface of the Ni pad, the $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ IMC layer formed on the Ni interface, preventing the Ni pad from reacting with the solder. Although a long isothermal aging treatment was performed at $150^{\circ}C$, no Ni was detected in the Cu-Sn IMC layer formed on the Cu side. Compared to the single Sn-Ag/ENIG solder joint, the formation of the $(Cu,Ni)_6Sn_5$ IMC layer of the Cu/sn-Ag/ENIG sandwich joint effectively retarded the Ni consumption from the electroless Ni-P layer.

• Proceedings of the KWS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.450-455
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• 2002

Cu-cored Sn-Ag solder balls were fabricated by coating pure Sn and Ag on Cu balls. The melting behavior and the solderability of the BGA joint with the Ni/Au coated Cu pad were investigated and were compared with those of the commercial Sn-Ag and Sn-Ag-Cu balls. DSC analyses clarified the melting of Cu-cored solders to start at a rather low temperature, the eutectic temperature of Sn-Ag-Cu. It was ascribed to the diffusion of Cu and Ag into Sn plating during the heating process. After reflow soldering the microstructures of the solder and of the interfacial layer between the solder and the Cu pad were analyzed with SEM and EPMA. By EDX analysis, formation of a eutectic microstructure composing of $\beta$-Sn, Ag$_3$Sn, ad Cu$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ phases was confirmed in the solder, and the η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer was found to form at the interface between the solder and the Cu pad. By conducting shear tests, it was found that the BGA joint using Cu-cored solder ball could prevent the degradation of joint strength during aging at 423K because of the slower growth me of η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer formed at the solder, pad interface. Furthermore, Cu-cored multi-component Sn-Ag-Bi balls were fabricated by sequentially coating the binary Sn-Ag and Sn-Bi solders on Cu balls. The reflow property of these solder balls was investigated. Melting of these solder balls was clarified to start at the almost same temperature as that of Sn-2Ag-0.75Cu-3Bi solder. A microstructure composing of (Sn), Ag$_3$Sn, Bi and Cu$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ phases was found to form in the solder ball, and a reaction layer containing primarily η'-(Au, Co, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ was found at the interface with Ni/Au coated Cu pad after reflow soldering. By conducting shear test, it was found that the BGA joints using this Cu-core solder balls hardly degraded their joint shear strength during aging at 423K due to the slower growth rate of the η'-(Au, Cu, Ni)$_{6}$Sn$_{5}$ reaction layer at the solder/pad interface.he solder/pad interface.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.87-92
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• 2008

The interface microstructure of Sn-3.5Ag/Cu joint was modified by electroplating varying amount of Zn on Cu UBM. As the amount of Zn dissolved in Sn-3.5Ag solder increased with the electroplating Zn thickness, Cu-Sn IMCs such as $Cu_6Sn_5$ and $Cu_3Sn$ were replaced by Zn-containing IMCs such as $Cu_5Zn_8$ and $Ag_5Zn_8$, which increased the drop reliability of solder joints significantly. When the amount of Zn dissolved in solder was about 3.8wt%, drop resistance was best due to the effective suppression of Cu-Sn IMC and voids at the interface.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.842-851
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• 2009

The long-term reliability of Sn-0.3wt%Ag-0.7wt%Cu solder joints was evaluated and compared with Sn-3.0wt%Ag-0.5wt%Cu under thermal shock conditions. Test vehicles were prepared to use Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder alloys. To compare the shear strength of the solder joints, 0603, 1005, 1608, 2012, 3216 and 4232 multi-layer ceramic chip capacitors were used. A reflow soldering process was utilized in the preparation of the test vehicles involving a FR-4 material-based printed circuit board (PCB). To compare the shear strength degradation following the thermal shock cycles, a thermal shock test was conducted up to 2,000 cycles at temperatures ranging from $-40^{\circ}C$ to $85^{\circ}C$, with a dwell time of 30 min at each temperature. The shear strength of the solder joints of the chip capacitors was measured at every 500 cycles in each case. The intermetallic compounds (IMCs) of the solder joint interfaces werealso analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that the reliability of Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu solder joints was very close to that of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu. Consequently, it was confirmed that Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu solder alloy with a low silver content can be replaced with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.92-98
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• 2003

This paper describes the numerical prediction of the thermal fatigue life of a $\mu$BGA(Micro Ball Grid Array) solder joint. Finite element analysis(FEA) was employed to simulate thermal cycling loading for solder joint reliability. 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. The results show that Sn-3.5mass%Ag solder had the longest thermal fatigue life in low cycle fatigue. Also a practical correlation for the prediction of the thermal fatigue life was suggested by using the dimensionless variable ${\gamma}$, which was possible to use several lead free solder alloys for prediction of thermal fatigue life. Furthermore, when the contact angle of the ball and chip has 50 degrees, solder joint has longest fatigue life.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.77-81
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• 2002

Many kinds of Pb-free solder have been investigated because of the environmental concerns. Sn-Ag-Cu system is well blown as most competitive Pb-free solder. However, since Sn-Ag-Cu system has relatively high melting point compared to Sn-Pb eutectic, it may a limitation, the some application. In this study, Bi and In contained solder of $Sn_3Ag_8Bi_5In$ which has relatively lower melting point, $188~204^{\circ}C$, was investigated. $Sn_3Ag_8Bi_5In$ solder ball of $500\mu\textrm{m}$ diameter was set on the Ni/Cu/Cr-UBM and reflow soldered in the range of $220~240^{\circ}C$ for 5~15s. The maximum shear strength of the solder ball was around 170mN by reflowing at $240^{\circ}C$ for 10s. Intermetallic compound formed on the UBM of Si-wafer was analysed by SEM(scanning electron microscope) and XRD(X-ray diffractometer).

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.49-55
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• 2011

The failure of electronic instruments is mostly caused by heat and shock. This shock causes the crack initiation at the solder joint interface of PCB component which is closely related with the formation of intermetallic compound(IMC). The Ag content in Pb-free Sn-xAg-0.5Cu solder alloy used in this study was 1.0, 1.2 and 3.0 wt.%, respectively. After soldering with PCB component, isothermal aging was performed to 1000 hrs. The growth of IMC layer was observed during isothermal aging. The drop impact property of solder joint was evaluated by impact bending test method. The solder joint made with the solder containing lower Ag content showed better impact bending property compared with that with higher Ag content. On the contrary to this result, the solder joint made with solder containing higher Ag content showed better impact bending property after aging. It should be caused by the formation of fine $Ag_3Sn$, which relieved the impact. It showed consequently the different effect of fine $Ag_3Sn$ and coarse $Cu_6Sn_5$ particles formed in the IMC layer on the impact bending property.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1207-1208
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• 2006

We developed the copper core ball electroplated with Sn-Ag-Cu of the eutectic composition which used mostly as Pb free solder ball with high reliability. In order to search for the practicality of this developed copper core ball, the evaluation was executed by measuring the initial joint strength of the sample mounted on the substrate and reflowed and by measuring the joint strength of the sample after the high temperature leaving test and the constant temperature and the humidity leaving test. This evaluation was compered with those of the usual other copper core balls electroplated with (Sn,Sn-Ag,Sn-Cu,Sn-Bi) and the Sn-Ag-Cu solder ball.