Solder joints in electronic packages often experience fatigue failures due to cyclic mechanical stresses and strains in fluctuating temperature environments. These stresses and strains are induced by mismatches in coefficients of thermal expansion, and lead to damage accumulation that contributes to crack initiation, crack propagation, and eventually to failure. In this study, we have tried to compare the effects of elevated mechanical cycling on SAC305 and SAC+Bi (SAC_Q). Initially, small uniaxial cylindrical samples of both alloys were prepared and reflowed in a reflow oven. These samples were then mechanically cycled for various durations at testing temperatures of 100 °C. The measured cyclic stress-strain curves were used to characterize the evolution of the hysteresis loop properties (peak stress, hysteresis loop area, and plastic strain range) with high temperature mechanical cycling. In addition, uniaxial tensile tests and creep tests were also conducted on specimens that had been previously mechanically cycled for various durations (e.g 0, 50, 100, 200, and 300 cycles) at an elevated temperature. This allowed us to study the evolution of the constitutive behavior of the solder alloys that occurred during the high temperature mechanical cycling due to the fatigue damage that builds up in the specimens. The reductions in the properties that occur during high temperature mechanical cycling were also correlated with the corresponding changes in the microstructure of the specimens. Rectangular cross-sectioned samples of the two lead free solder alloys were polished and selected regions indented to track the changes in the microstructure of a fixed region with mechanical cycling at T = 100 °C. Using the results of this study, we are working to develop better fatigue criteria for lead free solders which are subjected to variable temperature applications.

Electronic packages are frequently exposed to a thermal cycling environment in real life applications. Particularly, the plastic ball grid array (PBGA) is one of the most widely used electronic package, and consists of various component materials, e.g. solder joint, silicon die, die attachment adhesive, mold compound, solder mask, etc. All of these materials play a significant role on the reliability of the overall package. Failure under creep deformation is one of the significant failure mode for electronic packages. Hence, it is important to study their creep behavior and evolution under the thermal cycling environment. These changes must be evaluated in order to understand and predict their failure behavior due to creep damage in operation. In our previous study, evolution of mechanical properties of SAC305 solder joints in a PBGA package up to 250 thermal cycles was evaluated using the nanoindentation technique. In this work, nanoindentation technique was utilized to understand the evolution of creep behavior of the SAC305 solder joint, die attachment adhesive, silicon die, and solder mask material for various durations of thermal cycling. Test specimens were first prepared by cross sectioning a PBGA package to reveal the different materials, followed by surface polishing to facilitate SEM imaging and nanoindentation testing. After preparation, the package samples were thermally cycled from T = −40 to 125 °C in an environmental chamber. At various points in the cycling (e.g. after 0, 50, 100, 250 and 500 cycles), the package was taken out from the chamber, and nanoindentation was performed on above mentioned materials to obtain creep behavior at room temperature (25 °C). From the nanoindentation test data, it was found that creep deformation of SAC305 increased upto 500 cycles. Die attachment and solder mask materials showed initial decrease in creep deformation up to 250 cycles and then increased value at 500 cycles. As expected, the silicon die material does not show any significant change in creep deformation behavior upto 500 cycles.

Microstructural evolution occurs in lead free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solder joints exposed to isothermal aging. Such changes lead to degradations in the mechanical properties and creep behavior of the solder, and can result in dramatic reductions in the board level reliability of lead-free electronic assemblies subjected to aging. In our recent research, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) has been used to: (1) monitor aging induced microstructural changes occurring within fixed regions in selected lead-free solder joints, (2) create time-lapse imagery of the microstructure evolution, and (3) analyze the microstructural changes quantitatively and correlate to the observed mechanical behavior evolution. This approach has removed the limitations of many prior studies where aged and non-aged microstructures were taken from two different samples and could only be qualitatively compared. In our current study, the microstructural evolutions were observed in SAC305 (96.5Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) and SAC_Q (SAC+Bi) exposed to isothermal conditions at T = 100 °C and 125 °C for several different regions from several different joints. The microstructures in several fixed regions of interest were recorded after predetermined time intervals of aging, which were 1 hour (up to 270 hours) and 250 hours (up to 7000 hours) for the long-term aging samples. The aging induced changes in microstructure have been correlated with the changes in mechanical behavior measured using uniaxial tensile testing. The area and diameter of each IMC particle were tracked during the aging process using the recorded images and imaging processing software. As expected, the analysis of the evolving SAC305 and SAC+X microstructures showed a significant amount of diffusion of silver and bismuth in the beta-tin matrix during aging. In particular, Ag 3 Sn particles coalesced during aging leading to a decrease in the number of particles. Any bismuth in the SAC+X microstructure was observed to quickly go into solution, resulting in solid solution strengthening. This primary occurred within the beta-Sn dendrites, but also in the Ag 3 Sn intermetallic rich regions between dendrites. The presence of bismuth in was also found to slow the diffusion process that coarsens the Ag 3 Sn IMC particles. The combination solid solution strengthening and a lower diffusion rate for Ag lead to reduced aging effects in the SAC+Bi alloy relative to the SAC305 solder alloy. The SAC_Q alloy was found to have significantly better high temperature mechanical properties relative to SAC305 at all prior aging conditions. In particular, the initial modulus and ultimate tensile strength of SAC305 experienced large degradations during high temperature aging, whereas the same properties of SAC_Q changed only slightly. These changes in mechanical behavior correlated well with the observed increases in the average IMC particle diameter and decreases in the number of IMC particles. The microstructural and material property degradations were especially large for SAC305 during the initial 50 hours of aging.

Solder Joints are among the most vulnerable components within electronic packages, and solder joint fatigue is regarded to be one of the major methods of electronic package failure. The prediction of solder joint reliability is thus of great importance and most finite element packages utilize the Anand Viscoplastic Model to model the mechanical behavior of the solder joint material. In this work, 3 × 3 arrays of SAC305 solder joints of roughly 750 μm in diameter were reflowed in between two FR-4 printed circuit boards to create a sandwich structural sample. These samples were then subjected to creep testing in shear at various temperatures (T = 25, 50, 75, 100 °C) and stress levels (τ = 5, 10, and 15 MPa). A set of specially designed fixtures was used to grip the solder joint specimens. The nine Anand model constants were then extracted from the creep data. The Anand model predicted creep response curves were then compared with the experimental creep measurements to determine the accuracy of the model. The Anand model predictions were found to match the measured data very well over a wide range of temperatures and stress levels.

In the electronic assembly arena, lead is being targeted due to the concern regarding environmental pollutants. So, the lead-free solder and its reliability are getting highlighted. During qualification testing or actual use lead-free solders in electronic assemblies, they are often subjected to thermal cycling. In the lead-free solder material, microstructural evolution and material property degradation occurs due to the thermal aging phenomena during dwell periods at the high temperature extreme of thermal cycling. In addition, during ramping between low and high temperature extreme, lead-free solders can experience additional aging phenomena. In our prior work, we have compared material properties (stiffness and strength) degradation of lead-free solder materials in isothermal aging and five different thermal cycling exposures. Changes in material properties were higher for all the thermal cycling exposures compared to the aging. In addition, microstructural evolution and material property degradation were exacerbated as the ramp rate decreased in the thermal cycling. In this study, the creep behavior evolutions occurring in SAC305 lead free solder subjected to isothermal aging and slow thermal cycling exposures have been investigated. Uniaxial test specimens were prepared by reflowing solder in rectangular cross-section glass tubes with a controlled temperature profile. Afterwards, the reflowed samples were exposed to either isothermal aging at 125 °C, or to thermal cycling from −40 to +125 °C, under a stress-free condition (no load) for various durations in an environmental chamber. A slow thermal cycling profile, e.g. 150 minutes cycle with 45 minutes ramps and 30 minutes dwells, was chosen for this study as it was found in our previous work that it caused the most detrimental effects on the mechanical behavior evolution. The thermally exposed samples were isothermally aged for 0, 1, 2, and 5 days; or were thermally cycled for 0, 48, 96, and 240 slow thermal cycles, which had the same aging times at the high temperature extreme of T = 125 °C. After aging or cycling, creep testing was performed at room temperature on the thermally exposed samples at three different stress levels (10, 12, 15 MPa). The evolutions of the secondary creep strain rate were obtained as a function of the stress level, as well as the net aging time at the high temperature extreme, and then compared. Results showed that secondary creep strain rate increased dramatically with equivalent aging time, and that the degradation effects were larger for slow thermal cycling than for pure aging. For example, the creep rate increased by 3.0–3.4X for 5 days of pure aging at T = 125 °C; while they increased by 10.9–13.1X for 240 thermal cycles, when there had been 5 days of equivalent aging at the T = 125 °C high temperature extreme.

Solder joints in electronic packages are frequently exposed to thermal cycling environment. Such exposures can occur in real life application as well as in accelerated thermal cycling tests used for the fatigue behavior characterization. Because of temperature variations and CTE mismatches of the assembly materials, cyclic temperature leads to damage accumulation and material property evolution in the solder joints. This eventually results in crack initiation, and subsequent crack growth and failure. In this study, the nanoindentation technique was used to understand the evolution of mechanical properties (modulus, hardness and creep behavior) of SAC305 BGA solder joints and Cu pad subjected to thermal cycling loading for various durations. In addition, microstructural changes in those joints that occur during thermal cycling were observed using both SEM and optical microscopy. BGA solder joint strip specimens were first prepared by cross sectioning BGA assemblies followed by surface polishing to facilitate SEM imaging and nanoindentation testing. The strip specimens were chosen to contain several single grain solder joints. This enabled large regions of solder material with equivalent mechanical behavior, which could then be indented several times after various durations of cycling. After preparation, the solder joint strip samples were thermally cycled from T = −40 to 125 °C in an environmental chamber. At various points in the cycling (e.g. after 0, 50, 100, and 250 cycles), the package was taken out from the chamber, and nanoindentation was performed on each single grain joint and joint Cu pads to obtain the modulus, hardness, and creep behavior at 25 °C. This allowed the evolution of the mechanical properties with the duration of thermal cycling to be determined. Moreover, microstructural changes were also observed after various durations of cycling using optical microscopy. From the nanoindentation test results, it was found that the modulus and hardness of the SAC305 solder joints dropped significantly with thermal cycling. However, the Cu pad did not show any change in the mechanical behavior during cycling. Moreover, the nanoindentation creep test results showed significant increases in the creep deformation for solder joints whereas Cu pad did now show any significant changes in creep behavior when both of them were subjected to thermal cycling up to 250 cycles.

In microelectronics packaging industry, polymer based materials are used extensively. These polymer materials show viscoelastic behavior when subject to time dependent loads or deformations. The viscoelastic behavior highly depends on both temperature and time. In many cases, these viscoelastic properties are often neglected due to saving computational cost or unavailability of full characterization of the viscoelastic properties. To make accurate predictions of packaging mechanical behavior and reliability, it is important to accurately characterize the viscoelastic behavior of mold compounds, underfill encapsulants, adhesives and other polymers used in electronic assemblies. After characterization, these parameters can be used as input material property data for finite element analysis (FEA) simulations. In this study, both frequency dependent dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) measurements, and strain and temperature dependent stress relaxation experiments were performed on a typical underfill material in order to characterize its linear viscoelastic behavior. In both cases, a master curve was determined using the assumption of time-temperature equivalence, and Prony series expansions were utilized to model the underfill material relaxation behavior. After that, these viscoelastic underfill material parameters were used in finite element models of underfilled ball grid array packages (Ultra CSP) subjected to thermal cycling from −40 to 125 °C. Separate simulations were also performed using temperature dependent elastic properties for the underfill material. In both cases, the solder joint fatigue life was estimated, and the effects of using viscoelastic properties for the underfill in solder joint fatigue life simulation were investigated.

Solder joint reliability is a chief concern in electronic assemblies. Electronic packages consist of various materials, each having their own Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE). When assembled packages experience high temperature gradients and thermal cycles, a mismatch in the CTE values brings about cyclic shear strains in the solder joints, which can ultimately lead to failure. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of shear cycling on the damage accumulated in solder joints. Previous studies conducted on the effect of mechanical cycling on the material behavior of lead free solders have been performed on bulk samples subjected to tension and compression. Our goal in this study was to determine the evolution of the mechanical properties of doped lead free solder joints when subjected to mechanical shear cycling. Experiments conducted on actual solder joints would help us gain a better understanding on the real life effects of shear cycling. The test specimens consisted of a 3 × 3 array of nine solder joints of approximately 0.75 mm diameter. With the aid of specially designed test fixtures, the specimens were gripped and then subjected to mechanical cycling in the shear using an Instron Micromechanical tester. Testing was performed on both SAC305 and SACX (SAC+Bi) solder joints. The joints were cycled for certain durations, and a nanoindentation system was used to measure the evolution of the mechanical properties (elastic modulus, hardness, creep rate) as a function of the number of shear cycles.

In this work, the mechanical behavior of a typical UV curable solder mask material has been explored as a function of ultra violet (UV) curing time, testing temperature, and isothermal aging exposure. Mechanical testing has been performed using standard tensile testing. For the tensile testing, a specimen preparation procedure has been developed to make 80 × 3 mm uniaxial tension test samples with a defined thickness (e.g. 0.30 mm), and both stress-strain and creep tests were performed. The solder mask test specimens were prepared in a unique way and no release agent is required to extract them from the mold. The mechanical behavior changes of the solder mask material were recorded for different curing profiles including various durations of UV exposure and subsequent isothermal curing. The results showed that an optimum UV exposure time was critical to provide acceptable mechanical properties. In addition, the stress-strain and creep behavior of the solder mask were recorded for various temperatures from 25 to 125 °C, and the mechanical properties were found to degrade significantly at elevated temperatures as expected. The experimental results showed that variations of thermal curing profile (curing temperature and time) also change the mechanical properties significantly, so that solder masks have a very small optimum processing window. Finally, the effects of isothermal aging at 100 °C on the material behavior were characterized for different aging times. Using the recorded data, the changes in the elastic modulus, strength, and creep rate were characterized as a function of aging time. Significant variations were observed in the elastic modulus (250%) and ultimate strength (150%) of the aged samples.

Exposure of lead free solder joints to high temperature isothermal aging conditions leads to microstructure evolution, which mainly includes coarsening of the intermetallic (IMC) phases. In our previous work, it was found that the coarsening of IMCs led to degradation of the overall mechanical properties of the SAC solder composite consisting of β-Sn matrix and IMC particles. However, it is not known whether the isothermal aging changes properties of the individual β-Sn and IMC phases, which could also be affecting to the overall degradation of properties. In this study, the aging induced variations of the mechanical properties of the β-Sn phase, and of Sn-Cu IMC particles in SAC solder joints have been explored using nanoindentation. SAC solder joints extracted from SuperBGA (SBGA) packages were aged for different time intervals (0, 1, 5, 10 days) at T = 125 °C. Nanoindentation test samples were prepared by cross sectioning the solder joints, and then molding them in epoxy and polishing them to prepare the joint surfaces for nanoindentation. Multiple β-Sn grains were identified in joints using optical polarized microscopy and IMCs were also observed. Individual β-Sn grains and IMC particles were then indented at room temperature to measure their mechanical properties (elastic modulus and hardness) and time dependent creep deformations. Properties measured at different aging time were then compared to explore aging induced degradations of the individual phases. The properties of the individual phases did not show significant degradation. Thus, IMC coarsening is the primary reason for the degradation of bulk solder joint properties, and changes of the properties of the individual phases making up the lead free solder material are negligible.

Creep response of joints bonded with single-layered pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) was investigated in this study. PSAs are becoming more and more popular in the electronic industry as bonding media because of their ease of design, fast accurate bonding, environmentally-friendly bonding and ease of reworking. Such adhesive bonds are expected to experience complex, sustained loading conditions in service; e.g. loading due to large mass components, shock, temperature, or alignment mismatch of substrates. Stress-strain behavior of PSA bonding assembly has been extensively studied through experiments and simulations, including the effects of loading conditions (loading rate and temperature), PSA configurations (thickness of adhesive and single/double-layered PSAs), and bonding substrate surface properties (substrate material and surface roughness). However, the literature regarding the creep response of PSA-bonded assemblies is lacking and there is no literature on modeling methodologies for the creep response of such bonding systems. Similar to the stress-strain behavior of PSA-bonded assemblies, the creep response includes transitions between multiple hardening and softening phases. Experimental results indicate that the secondary creep rate can change by up to two orders of magnitude after each transition, which is too significant to ignore when estimating the creep deformation of joints bonded with this material system. The number of transitions is related to the configuration of the PSA system, i.e. the single-layered PSA has one transition while double-layers PSAs may have multiple transitions due to the additional interface(s) introduced by the carrier layer. This unique secondary creep behavior comes from the competition between hydrostatic stress relaxation and strain hardening, caused by cavitation and fibrillation processes, respectively. The total stress applied on the joint is equal to the summation of deviatoric stress and hydrostatic stress. An advanced model based on the stress-strain ‘block’ model [5–7] is developed for evaluating the creep response. This model has the capability to control the initiation and growth of cavities in the bulk of the PSA and at the interface between PSA and substrate. This model is able to capture the nonlinear visco-plastic behavior of the PSA fibrils and estimate the effects of flexible carrier layer on the transitions in creep curves. The model prediction shows reasonable agreement with experimental results in terms of the characteristic features in creep strain histories.

Lead free solders are renowned as interconnects in electronic packaging due to their relatively high melting point, attractive mechanical properties, thermal cycling reliability, and environment friendly chemical properties. The mechanical behavior of lead free solders is highly dependent on the operating temperature. Previous investigations on mechanical characterization of lead free solders have mainly emphasized stress-strain and creep testing at temperatures up to 125 °C. However, electronic devices, sometimes, experience harsh environment applications including well drilling, geothermal energy, automotive power electronics, and aerospace engines where solders are exposed to very high temperatures from 125–200 °C. Mechanical properties of lead free solders at elevated temperatures are limited. In this work, we have investigated the mechanical behavior SAC305 (96.5Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) and SAC_Q (SAC+Bi) lead free solders at extreme high temperatures up to 200 °C. Stress-strain tests were performed on reflowed uniaxial specimens at four elevated temperatures (T = 125, 150, 175, and 200 °C). In addition, changes of the mechanical behavior of these alloys due to isothermal aging at T = 125 °C have been studied. Extreme care has been taken during specimen preparation so that the fabricated solder uniaxial test specimens accurately reflect the solder material microstructures present in actual lead free solder joints. High temperature tensile properties of the solders including initial modulus, yield stress, and ultimate tensile strength have been compared. As expected, our results show substantial degradations of the mechanical properties of lead-free solders at higher temperatures. With prior aging, these degradations become even more significant. Comparison of the results has shown that the addition of Bi to traditional SAC alloys improves their high temperature properties and significantly reduces their aging induced degradations.

The coarse heterogeneous microstructure of SAC alloys makes the behavior of interconnections highly sensitive to its geometric length-scale. Heterogeneous integration and the resulting increase in package complexity and miniaturization are making this scale-effect ever more important. This scale effect derives from the anisotropy of tin and the coarse multi-tiered microstructural heterogeneities in SAC solders. As a result, no two joints behave the same and every joint is unique depending on its specific microstructure. Product teams responsible for reliable heterogeneous integration have to ensure that they have adequate methods to deal with this variability. This paper highlights the multi-tiered microstructural morphology in SAC solders due to the solidification and crystallization process. At the highest tier in the joint microstructure are individual (highly anisotropic) grains that can be 100s of microns in size. At the next lower tier the primary heterogeneity is due to individual dendrites of pro-eutectic β tin, that can have lobes as large as 10–20 microns. At the next lower tier the characteristic heterogeneity is a eutectic mix of nanoscale Ag 3 Sn IMC particles dispersed in a Sn matrix. Researchers have long recognized that the grain morphology is extremely important to mechanical behavior of BGA solder joints because they are coarse-grained (i.e. there may be only a few anisotropic grains in each BGA solder joint). However, heterogeneous integration has now led to joints that are much smaller (less than 100 microns tall), thus making them of the same length-scale as individual tin dendrites within each grain. In other words, there may be just a few dendrites through the thickness of the joint. Unfortunately, very little attention has focused on SAC behavior at such a small length-scale. This study focuses on the effect of the tin-dendrite morphology on the effective behavior of SAC solder joints, using a combination of experiments and multi-tiered anisotropic models that combine dislocation nano-mechanics with composite micromechanics. The volume fraction of β-Sn dendrite within one crystal could vary from 20% to 80%, depending on the time and temperature above the liquidus temperature and the cooling rates. The effects of volume fraction and aspect ratio of Sn dendrites on the anisotropic steady-state creep rate of single crystal SAC specimen are examined. The objective of the study is to provide insights into the role that solder microstructural heterogeneity will play on package reliability in heterogeneous integration.

In this paper, the effect of pretest isothermal aging and in-test aging on the fatigue behavior of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu alloy are examined using the microstructurally adaptive creep model (MACM) and the maximum entropy fracture model (MEFM). Compared to traditional constitutive models, the MACM considers the effect of thermal history. Two microstructural parameters, the average Ag 3 Sn particle size and the average primary-Sn cell size, are identified as critical to capturing the aging behavior of SnAgCu alloys and are incorporated into a modified Dorn creep form. The MEFM is next utilized to characterize the damage accumulation rate in the Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu solder alloy. The MEFM uses a single damage accumulation parameter, which connects the accumulated damage to the accumulated in-elastic dissipation. This parameter is independent of sample geometry, test temperature and strain rate. The concepts of static aging and dynamic aging are utilized to describe pretest aging and in-test aging. In 25° C tests, with longer static aging, a faster fatigue damage accumulation results. Through the relationship between the damage accumulation rate and the average primary-Sn cell size, the influence of microstructural evolution introduced by static aging on fatigue behavior is confirmed. In 100° C tests, the dynamic aging causes further rapid damage accumulation relative to the 25° C tests.

In the current study, we have extended our previous work on nanoindentation of joints to examine a full test matrix of SAC solder alloys. The effects of silver content on SAC solder aging has been evaluated by testing joints from SACN05 (SAC105, SAC205, SAC305, and SAC405) test boards assembled with the same reflow profile. In all cases, the tested joints were extracted from 14 × 14 mm PBGA assemblies (0.8 mm ball pitch, 0.46 mm ball diameter) that are part of the iNEMI Characterization of Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives Project (16 different solder joint alloys available). After extraction, the joints were subjected to various aging conditions (0 to 12 months of aging at T = 125 C), and then tested via nanoindentation techniques to evaluate the stress-strain and creep behavior of the four aged SAC solder alloy materials at the joint scale. The observed aging effects in the SACN05 solder joints have been quantified and correlated with the magnitudes observed in tensile testing of miniature bulk specimens performed in prior studies. The results show that the aging induced degradations of the mechanical properties (modulus, hardness) in the SAC joints were of similar order (30–40%) as those seen previously in the testing of larger “bulk” uniaxial solder specimens. The creep rates of the various tested SACN05 joints were found to increase by 8–50X due to aging. These degradations, while significant, were much less than those observed in larger bulk solder uniaxial tensile specimens with several hundred grains, where the increases ranged from 200X to 10000X for the various SACN05 alloys. Additional testing has been performed on very small tensile specimens with approximately 10 grains, and the aging-induced creep rate degradations found in these specimens were on the same order of magnitude as those observed in the single grain joints. Thus, the lack of the grain boundary sliding creep mechanism in the single grain joints is an important factor in avoiding the extremely large creep rate degradations (up to 10,000X) occurring in larger bulk SAC samples. All of the aging effects observed in the SACN05 joints were found to be exacerbated as the silver content in the alloy was reduced. In addition, the test results for all of the alloys show that the elastic, plastic, and creep properties of the solder joints and their sensitivities to aging are highly dependent on the crystal orientation. Due to the variety of crystal orientations realized during solidification, it was important to identify the grain structure and crystal orientations in the tested joints. Cross-polarized light microscopy and Electron Back Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) techniques have been utilized for this purpose. The test results show that the elastic, plastic, and creep properties of the solder joints and their sensitivities to aging are highly dependent on the crystal orientation. In addition, an approach has been developed to predict tensile creep strain rates for low stress levels using nanoindentation creep data measured at very high compressive stress levels.

Fatigue damage in solder joints is one of the most significant factors in the failure of electronic components. Accordingly, many research studies on the fatigue lifetime evaluation of solder joints have been undertaken to improve the reliability of the components. The authors have devised a lap-joint specimen with high stiffness fixtures in order to carry out shear fatigue testing on thin solder joints, which have thickness of a few hundred μm and are manufactured via a reflow process similar to that used in actual printed circuit boards (PCBs). In this work, using the developed lap-joint specimen, the fatigue properties, including crack initiation and propagation of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder joints were evaluated under low cycle shear loading conditions with creep deformation. The lap-joint specimen was fabricated by the reflow soldering of two copper adherend, and was assembled with high stiffness loading fixtures. The dimensions of the solder joint are 4 mm (length) × 2 mm (width), with a thickness ranging from 100 to 400 μm. In the shear fatigue test, under the assumption of thermal loading conditions of actual PCBs, the inelastic strain amplitude and total strain rate were set to from 0.5 to 1.2 % and 1×10 −4 s −1 , respectively. In addition, the fatigue crack initiation lifetime is defined as the number of cycles N 20% at which the load amplitude has decreased by 20 % from the initial value. As the first study result, the experimental relations between the fatigue crack initiation lifetime and the inelastic strain range were obtained. Next, in order to apply the experimental data to the evaluation of fatigue crack initiation in actual solder joints via finite element analyses, the lifetime data were related to the calculated inelastic strain at the interface corners of the solder joint of the specimen, where fatigue cracks initiate due to strain concentration. Finally, assuming that the reduction of the load amplitude corresponds linearly to the fatigue crack length, the experimental relations between the fatigue crack propagation rate and J -integral range were also obtained. The experimental data are regarded to be valid, given a comparison to other crack propagation curves for solder obtained by tensile cyclic loading of a flat specimen with a center crack. Consequently, the developed lap-joint specimen with high rigidity is effective for acquiring the material properties regarding fatigue crack initiation and propagation in actual thin solder joints.

In conjunction with micro bumps, Through-Silicon-Vias (TSVs) are used for die stacking, leading to reduced footprints and a higher performance due to shorter communication bus-length. However the large difference between the thermal expansion of silicon and copper and an increased temperature of the die stack due to Joule heating lead to shear stress at the interface between TSV and substrate. Temperature activated interfacial diffusion in combination with the shear stress leads to diffusional interfacial sliding, resulting in TSV pro- or intrusion. In addition, electromigration (EM) at the interface leads to TSV motion. Against this background the protrusion/intrusion of Cu TSVs (ø 10 μm, length 100 μm) during fast and slow rate thermal cycling (TC) and during EM experiments was investigated. Parallel to the experimental investigation a finite element analysis (FEA) was performed to study the micro-mechanical responses of Cu-filled TSV during thermal cycling. For this purpose interfacial sliding was incorporated into the FE model by diffusional creep mechanism. The FE model captures the main features being observed in experiments such as stress hysteresis and intrusion/protrusion of the TSV relative to Si substrate.

Sn-Ag-Cu solder materials have been widely used for the mount process of electronics devices or semiconductor packages on print circuit board (PCB). The solder joints are sometimes opened under thermal cyclic loads as low cycle fatigue phenomenon. The fatigue life of solder joint has been investigated by many researchers with experimental and numerical methods. Generally, the induced thermal stress in solder joints should be relaxed as soon and creep damage is considered to be ignored in order to estimate lives of joints. However, it is probable that long term stress is applied to solder joints by the elastic follow-up phenomenon which are depending on the stiffness ratio between solder joints and the electronics device, because the elastic strain in PCB or the electronics device shifts to creep strain in solder joints gradually during a long time. Then the creep damage of solder joint should be counted for the mechanical design of mounted PCBs. And it is known that the interaction between creep damage and fatigue damage significantly shorten the life. In this study, it was discussed whether the interaction between fatigue damage and creep damage has to be considered or not for the mechanical design of the lead free solder joint with basic creep-fatigue tests at an elevated temperature.

Microelectronic encapsulants exhibit evolving properties that change significantly with environmental exposures such as isothermal aging and high humidity conditions. In this work, the material behavior changes occurring in underfill materials subjected to moisture exposures in an humidity chamber have been characterized using 60 × 3 × 0.5 mm uniaxial test specimens which were cured with production equipment using the same conditions as those used in actual flip chip assembly. After curing, the samples were divided into two groups and subjected to different preconditioning: (1) no preconditioning, (2) prebaking at 85 C for 24 hours. The fabricated and preconditioned uniaxial test specimens were then exposed in an adjustable thermal and humidity chamber to combined hygrothermal exposures at 85 C and 85% RH for various durations (0, 1, 3, 10, 30, 60 days). After the moisture exposures, a microscale tension-torsion testing machine was used to evaluate the complete stress-strain behavior of the material at room temperature (25 C). In addition, the viscoelastic mechanical response of the underfill encapsulant has also been characterized via creep testing at room temperature for several applied stress levels after the moisture exposures. From the recorded results, it was found that the moisture exposures strongly degrade the mechanical properties of the tested underfill including the initial elastic modulus, ultimate tensile stress, and tensile creep rate. Prebaking was found to increase the initial material properties, but the degradations due to subsequent moisture exposures occurred in a similar manner.

This study focuses on the mechanical properties of two kinds of solders for high temperature interconnections (melting temperature above 280 °C after reflow). They are both lead-rich solders in wire form: 93.5Pb/5Sn/1.5Ag and 92.5Pb/5Sn/2.5Ag. The mechanical constitutive tests conducted in this study include: (i) monotonic elastic-plastic stress-strain response at constant strain rates and constant temperatures; and (ii) isothermal, viscoplastic creep strain response at several constant stress levels and different temperatures. The sensitivities of the material viscoplastic constitutive response to temperature, loading rate and stress level were systematically studied, so that the mechanical performance of these two solders could be compared with those of other solders, at similar test conditions. Both the Pb-rich solders studied had statistically similar behavior at the tested stress levels and temperatures in creep tests. The Ramberg-Osgood model and the Garofalo model were used to represent the elastic-plastic and creep behavior, respectively, of each solder and the corresponding model constants are presented in the paper.