• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.69-74
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• 2015

With difficulties during the cleaning of reflow flux residues due to the decrease of the part size and interconnection pitch in the advanced electronic devices, the need for the no-clean solder paste is increasing. In this study, an epoxy curable solder paste was made with SAC305 solder powder and the curable flux of which the main ingredient is epoxy resin and its reflow solderability, flux residue corrosivity and solder joint mechanical properties was investigated with comparison to the commercial rosin type solder paste. The fillet shape of the cured product around the reflowed solder joint revealed that the curing reaction occurred following the fluxing reaction and solder joint formation. The copper plate solderability test result also revealed that the wettability of the epoxy curable solder paste was comparable to those of the commercial rosin type solder pastes. In the highly accelerated temperature and humidity test, the cured product residue of the curable solder paste showed no corrosion of copper plate. From FT-IR analysis, it was considered to be resulted from the formation of tight bond through epoxy curing reaction. Ball shear, ball pull and die shear tests revealed that the adhesive bonding was formed with the solder surface and the increase of die shear strength of about 15~40% was achieved. It was considered that the epoxy curable solder paste could contribute to the improvement of the package reliability as well as the removal of the flux residue cleaning process.

• 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.2
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• pp.47-54
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• 2008

In this paper, we studied how and why did abnormal IMC growth at component affect on board level mechanical reliability. First, interfacial reactions between Sn2.5Ag0.5Cu solder and electrolytic Ni/Au UBM of component side were investigated with reflow times and thermal aging time. Also, to compare mechanical reliability of component level, shear energy was evaluated using the ball shear test conducted with variation of shear tip speed. Finally, to evaluate mechanical reliability of board level, we surface-mounted component fabricated with each condition on PCB side. After conducting of 3 point bending test and impact test, we confirmed solder joint crack mode using cross-sectioning and dye & pry penetration method.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.650-654
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• 2011

In this paper, the effects of conventional and newly developed elastomer modified underfill materials on the mechanical shock reliability of BGA board assembly were studied for application in mobile electronics. The mechanical shock reliability was evaluated through a three point dynamic bending test proposed by Motorola. The thermal properties of the underfills were measured by a DSC machine. Through the DSC results, the curing condition of the underfills was selected. Two types of underfills showed similar curing behavior. During the dynamic bending reliability test, the strain of the PCB was step increased from 0.2% to 1.5% until the failure circuit was detected at a 50 kHz sampling rate. The dynamic bending reliability of BGA board assembly using elastomer modified underfill was found to be superior to that of conventional underfill. From mechanical and microstructure analyses, the disturbance of crack propagation by the presence of submicron elastomer particles was considered to be mainly responsible for that result rather than the shear strength or elastic modulus of underfill joint.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.49-53
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• 2002

The Sn-Cu eutectic solder bump formation ($140{\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ diameter, $250{\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ pitch) by electroplating was studied for flip chip package fabrication. The effect of current density and plating time on Sn-Cu deposit was investigated. The morphology and composition of plated solder surface was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The plating thickness increased with increasing time. The plating rate increased generally according to current density. After the characteristics of Sn-Cu plating were investigated, Sn-Cu solder bumps were fabricated on optimal condition of 5A/dm$^2$, 2hrs. Ball shear test after reflow was performed to measure adhesion strength between solder bump and UBM (Under Bump Metallization). The shear strength of Sn-Cu bump after reflow was higher than that of before reflow.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.57-64
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• 2012

Ball shear test was performed by test variables such as loading speed and annealing time in order to investigate the effect of surface finishes on the bonding strength of Sn-1.2Ag-0.7Cu-0.4In Pb-free solder. The shear strength increased and the ductility decreased with increasing shear speed. With increasing shear speed, the electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) finish showed dominant brittle fracture mode, while organic solderability preservative (OSP) finish showed pad open fracture mode. The shear strength and toughness for both surface finishes decreased with increasing annealing time under the high-speed shear test of 500 mm/s. Typically, the thickness of intermetallic compound increased with increasing annealing time, which means that exposure of brittle fracture became much easier. With increasing annealing time, the both ENIG and OSP finishes exhibited the pad open fracture mode. Overall, ENIG finish showed higher shear strength rather than OSP finish due to its superior barrier stability.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.166-173
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• 2014

The effects of printed circuit board electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) surface finishes on the electromigration reliability and shear strength of Sn-3.5Ag Pb-free solder bump were systematically investigated. In-situ annealing tests were performed in a scanning electron microscope chamber at 130, 150, and $170^{\circ}C$ in order to investigate the growth kinetics of intermetallic compound (IMC). Electromigration lifetime and failure modes were investigated at $150^{\circ}C$ and $1.5{\times}10^5A/cm^2$, while ball shear tests and failure mode analysis were conducted under the high-speed conditions from 10 mm/s to 3000 mm/s. The activation energy of ENIG and OSP surface finishes during annealing were evaluated as 0.84 eV and 0.94 eV, respectively. The solder bumps with ENIG surface finish showed longer electromigration lifetime than OSP surface finish. Shear strengths between ENIG and OSP were similar, and the shear energies decreased with increasing shear speed. Failure analysis showed that electrical and mechanical reliabilities were very closely related to the interfacial IMC stabilities.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.34-40
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• 2005

There have been numerous approaches to examine the bonding strengths of solder joints. However, despite the technical and practical limitations, the precedent test methods such as the ball shear and ball pull tests are being used in industrial applications. In this study, the optimum jaw pressure with the modified protrusion jaw was introduced in order to obtain higher successful rate f3r ball pull testing. Furthermore, the pull strengths and fracture modes of Sn-8Zn-3Bi, Sn-4Ag-0.7Cu, and Sn-37Pb eutectic solder after isothermal aging tests ($100^{\circ}C,\;150^{\circ}C$), were evaluated with the protrusion jaw. The pull strength-displacement hysteresis curves and fracture surfaces were carefully investigated to evaluate the correlation between the pull strengths and the fracture modes of each solder. In conclusion, it is verified that Au-Zn IMCs (Intermetallic Compounds) have a detrimental effect on the pull strengths and changed fracture modes of Sn-8Zn-3Bi solder. Meanwhile, the microstructure transformation influences the degradation of pull strengths of Sn-4Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-37Pb solders.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.11-17
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• 2009

The drop impact reliability comes to be important for evaluation of the life time of mobile electronic products such as cellular phone. The drop impact reliability of solder joint is generally affected by the kinds of pad and reflow number, therefore, the reliability evaluation is needed. Drop impact test proposed by JEDEC has been used as a standard method, however, which requires high cost and long time. The drop impact reliability can be indirectly evaluated by using high speed shear test of solder joints. Solder joints formed on 3 kinds of surface finishes OSP (Organic Solderability Preservation), ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold) and ENEPIG (Electroless Nickel Electroless Palladium Immersion Gold) was investigated. The shear strength was analysed with the morphology change of intermetallic compound (IMC) layer according to reflow number. The layer thickness of IMC was increased with the increase of reflow number, which resulted in the decrease of the high speed shear strength and impact energy. The order of the high speed shear strength and impact energy was ENEPIG > ENIG > OSP after the 1st reflow, and ENEPIG > OSP > ENIG after 8th reflow.

• 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.