Tin whisker formation has been a serious concern for application of pure Tin as a Pb-free component lead finish. It has been long believed that residual stress is the root cause of whisker formation. A fundamental question is if stress produced by other than the plating processing and post-plating metallurgical reactions can induce whisker formation. In this study, micro indents were made on pure Tin plated component leads to induce stress for studying stress induced whisker formation. Nano-indentation was performed to measure hardness and elastic modulus of the Tin coating layer where whiskers initiate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study indentation deformation mechanisms and to monitor the nucleation and growth of whiskers in-situ. In additions, finite element analysis was carried out to theoretically calculate the stress/strain distribution around the indentations. Experimental and theoretical calculation results show that whiskers form at a certain stress level. This suggests that there might exit a critical stress threshold that governs the whisker formation. It is believed that establishment of a quantitative relationship between stress level and whisker formation/growth could lead to a breakthrough in risk and reliability assessment with pure Tin application in the electronic industry and in safeguard for smooth Pb-free transition.
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ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems collocated with the ASME 2005 Heat Transfer Summer Conference
July 17–22, 2005
San Francisco, California, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Heat Transfer Division and Electronic and Photonic Packaging Division
ISBN:
0-7918-4200-2
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Indentation Induced Tin Whisker Formation on Tin Plated Component Leads Available to Purchase
Xiaodong Li,
Xiaodong Li
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
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Zhi-Hui Xu,
Zhi-Hui Xu
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
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Dongkai Shangguan
Dongkai Shangguan
Flextronics, San Jose, CA
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Jin Liang
EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, MA
Xiaodong Li
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Zhi-Hui Xu
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
Dongkai Shangguan
Flextronics, San Jose, CA
Paper No:
IPACK2005-73233, pp. 1199-1205; 7 pages
Published Online:
March 4, 2009
Citation
Liang, J, Li, X, Xu, Z, & Shangguan, D. "Indentation Induced Tin Whisker Formation on Tin Plated Component Leads." Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems collocated with the ASME 2005 Heat Transfer Summer Conference. Advances in Electronic Packaging, Parts A, B, and C. San Francisco, California, USA. July 17–22, 2005. pp. 1199-1205. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/IPACK2005-73233
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