Microstructure, isothermal and thermomechanical fatigue behaviour of leaded and lead-free solder joints

Mohammad Ghaleeh; Ahmad Baroutaji; Mansour Al Qubeissi

doi:10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846

Microstructure, isothermal and thermomechanical fatigue behaviour of leaded and lead-free solder joints

Mohammad Ghaleeh, Ahmad Baroutaji, Mansour Al Qubeissi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The reliability of solder joints is a critical issue in the microelectronics industry. The requirement of permanent electrical and thermal connections between solder alloys and the various components of a surface mount device is dependent upon the mechanical integrity of the solder and its interfaces. Accordingly, in this paper, the reliability of lead-free, Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu, and leaded, Sn-37Pb, solder alloys was investigated under both thermal-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and isothermal mechanical fatigue (IF) conditions. The investigation included material characterisation and fatigue testing on 4-ball grid array (BGA) specimens. The IF tests were carried out under load control at three different temperatures including Room Temperature (RT), 35°C and 75°C. Also, a set of ‘not-in-phase’ (nIP), ‘in-phase’ (IP) and ‘out-of-phase’ (OoP) combined thermal and mechanical cycling tests were carried out to investigate the TMF behaviour of the solders. The stress-life curves for each test condition were generated and then compared taking into account the observations on microstructure. It was found that the IF and TMF performance of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu alloy was better than Sn-37Pb alloy when expressed as stress-life curves. Additionally, the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu was less susceptible to the changes in temperature. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the reliability of solder alloys under a wide range of loading conditions.

Original language	English
Article number	104846
Number of pages	84
Journal	Engineering Failure Analysis
Volume	117
Early online date	11 Aug 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846
Publication status	Published - Nov 2020

Bibliographical note

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Engineering Failure Analysis. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Engineering Failure Analysis,, 117 (2020) DOI: 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846

© 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

Materials
FEA
Structural break
Failure analysis
Creep
Fatigue crack growth
Solder
Joints
Shear stress
Thermal Fatigue
surface properties of materials

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Mechanics of Materials
Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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title = "Microstructure, isothermal and thermomechanical fatigue behaviour of leaded and lead-free solder joints",

abstract = "The reliability of solder joints is a critical issue in the microelectronics industry. The requirement of permanent electrical and thermal connections between solder alloys and the various components of a surface mount device is dependent upon the mechanical integrity of the solder and its interfaces. Accordingly, in this paper, the reliability of lead-free, Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu, and leaded, Sn-37Pb, solder alloys was investigated under both thermal-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and isothermal mechanical fatigue (IF) conditions. The investigation included material characterisation and fatigue testing on 4-ball grid array (BGA) specimens. The IF tests were carried out under load control at three different temperatures including Room Temperature (RT), 35°C and 75°C. Also, a set of {\textquoteleft}not-in-phase{\textquoteright} (nIP), {\textquoteleft}in-phase{\textquoteright} (IP) and {\textquoteleft}out-of-phase{\textquoteright} (OoP) combined thermal and mechanical cycling tests were carried out to investigate the TMF behaviour of the solders. The stress-life curves for each test condition were generated and then compared taking into account the observations on microstructure. It was found that the IF and TMF performance of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu alloy was better than Sn-37Pb alloy when expressed as stress-life curves. Additionally, the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu was less susceptible to the changes in temperature. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the reliability of solder alloys under a wide range of loading conditions.",

keywords = "Materials, FEA, Structural break, Failure analysis, Creep, Fatigue crack growth, Solder, Joints, Shear stress, Thermal Fatigue, surface properties of materials",

author = "Mohammad Ghaleeh and Ahmad Baroutaji and {Al Qubeissi}, Mansour",

note = "NOTICE: this is the author{\textquoteright}s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Engineering Failure Analysis. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Engineering Failure Analysis,, 117 (2020) DOI: 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846 {\textcopyright} 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ",

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doi = "10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846",

language = "English",

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AU - Ghaleeh, Mohammad

AU - Baroutaji, Ahmad

AU - Al Qubeissi, Mansour

N1 - NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Engineering Failure Analysis. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Engineering Failure Analysis,, 117 (2020) DOI: 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846 © 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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N2 - The reliability of solder joints is a critical issue in the microelectronics industry. The requirement of permanent electrical and thermal connections between solder alloys and the various components of a surface mount device is dependent upon the mechanical integrity of the solder and its interfaces. Accordingly, in this paper, the reliability of lead-free, Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu, and leaded, Sn-37Pb, solder alloys was investigated under both thermal-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and isothermal mechanical fatigue (IF) conditions. The investigation included material characterisation and fatigue testing on 4-ball grid array (BGA) specimens. The IF tests were carried out under load control at three different temperatures including Room Temperature (RT), 35°C and 75°C. Also, a set of ‘not-in-phase’ (nIP), ‘in-phase’ (IP) and ‘out-of-phase’ (OoP) combined thermal and mechanical cycling tests were carried out to investigate the TMF behaviour of the solders. The stress-life curves for each test condition were generated and then compared taking into account the observations on microstructure. It was found that the IF and TMF performance of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu alloy was better than Sn-37Pb alloy when expressed as stress-life curves. Additionally, the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu was less susceptible to the changes in temperature. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the reliability of solder alloys under a wide range of loading conditions.

AB - The reliability of solder joints is a critical issue in the microelectronics industry. The requirement of permanent electrical and thermal connections between solder alloys and the various components of a surface mount device is dependent upon the mechanical integrity of the solder and its interfaces. Accordingly, in this paper, the reliability of lead-free, Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu, and leaded, Sn-37Pb, solder alloys was investigated under both thermal-mechanical fatigue (TMF) and isothermal mechanical fatigue (IF) conditions. The investigation included material characterisation and fatigue testing on 4-ball grid array (BGA) specimens. The IF tests were carried out under load control at three different temperatures including Room Temperature (RT), 35°C and 75°C. Also, a set of ‘not-in-phase’ (nIP), ‘in-phase’ (IP) and ‘out-of-phase’ (OoP) combined thermal and mechanical cycling tests were carried out to investigate the TMF behaviour of the solders. The stress-life curves for each test condition were generated and then compared taking into account the observations on microstructure. It was found that the IF and TMF performance of Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu alloy was better than Sn-37Pb alloy when expressed as stress-life curves. Additionally, the Sn-3.8Ag-0.7Cu was less susceptible to the changes in temperature. This study provides a comprehensive insight into the reliability of solder alloys under a wide range of loading conditions.

KW - Materials

KW - FEA

KW - Structural break

KW - Failure analysis

KW - Creep

KW - Fatigue crack growth

KW - Solder

KW - Joints

KW - Shear stress

KW - Thermal Fatigue

KW - surface properties of materials

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DO - 10.1016/j.engfailanal.2020.104846

M3 - Article

VL - 117

JO - Engineering Failure Analysis

JF - Engineering Failure Analysis

SN - 1350-6307

M1 - 104846

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