Damage Pre-Cursors Based Prognostication of Accrued Damage and Assessment of Operational Readiness of Leadfree Electronics

Electronics in high reliability applications may be stored for extended periods of time prior to deployment. Prior studies have shown the elastic modulus and ultimate tensile strength of the SAC leadfree alloys reduces under prolonged exposure to high temperatures [Zhang 2009]. The thermal cycle magnitudes may vary over the lifetime of the product. Long-life systems may be re-deployed several times over the use life of the product. Previously, the authors have identified damage pre-cursors for correlation of the damage progression with the microstructural evolution of damage in second level interconnects [Lall 2004^a-d, 2005^a-b, 2006^a-f, 2007^a-e, 2008^a-f, 2009^a-d, 2010^a-j]. Leadfree assemblies with Sn3Ag0.5Cu solder have been subjected to variety of thermal aging conditions including 60°C, 85°C and 125°C for periods of time between 1-week and 2-months, thermal cycling from −55°C to 125°C, −40°C to 95°C and 3°C to 100°C. The presented methodology uses leading indicators of failure based on microstructural evolution of damage to identify accrued damage in electronic systems subjected to sequential stresses of thermal aging and thermal cycling. Damage equivalency relationships have been developed to map damage accrued in thermal aging to the reduction in thermo-mechanical cyclic life based on damage proxies. Accrued damage between different thermal cyclic magnitudes has also been mapped for from −55°C to 125°C, −40°C to 95°C and 3°C to 100°C thermal cycles. The presented method for interrogation of the accrued damage for the field deployed electronics, significantly prior to failure, may allow insight into the damage initiation and progression of the deployed system. The expected error with interrogation of system state and assessment of residual life has been quantified.