Low-Cycle Fatigue Reliability Evaluation for Lead-Free Solders in Vehicle Electronics Devices

The changeover from eutectic Sn-Pb solder to lead-free solder (Sn-Ag-Cu) has been driven by environmental concerns in the last few years. In this study, in order to obtain the low-cycle fatigue characteristic of Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder joints, an isothermal mechanical fatigue test with a large strain range, which can clarify the crack generation process and shorten the examination time, was carried out. FEM analysis was also performed in order to evaluate the relationship between the inelastic strain range and the low-cycle fatigue life. As a result, compared with fatigue life longer than 1000 cycles, the scatter of the fatigue cycles from 100 to several hundred cycles becomes larger. So, it seems that it is necessary to carefully evaluate the low-cycle fatigue life in the reliability evaluation. Moreover, in large chip components, not only crack initiation, but also crack propagation, affects the failure life. Thus, the crack path was simulated and the failure cycle of the large chip was evaluated based on Miner’s rule, and reliability of including the fatigue crack propagation can be evaluated by the analytical approach.