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Effects of impurities on void formation at the interface between Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Cu electroplated films

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Abstract

Void formation is a critical reliability concern for solder joints in electronic packaging. The control of microstructures and the quantity of impurities in Cu electroplated films significantly affect void formation at the joint interface, but studies investigating these factors are rare. In this study, three Cu films (denoted as A, B, and C) are fabricated using an electroplating process. The Cu A film has a faceted grain texture embedded with twin boundaries, while Cu B and C films have similar columnar textures. After thermal aging at 200 °C for 1000 h, the SAC 305 (Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu) solder joints with Cu A and B films exhibit robust interfacial structures without voids. However, microstructural collapse is observed in the solder joint of SAC 305/Cu C, where many crevices are formed parallel to the interface. Based on the microanalysis, the concentration of impurities is higher in Cu C than in Cu A and B. Moreover, discrete voids rather than continuous crevices are present in the SAC305/Cu C system when the impurity concentration in Cu C is reduced. The findings demonstrate that impurity control in Cu electroplated film is critical for the control of void/crevice formation in electronic solder joints.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan through Grant No. MOST-106-2221-E-005-066-MY3. Chih-Ming Chen thanks the financial support of the “Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture” from The Featured Areas Research Center Program within the framework of the Higher Education Sprout Project by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in Taiwan. Yu-An Shen thanks the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under Project 109-2222-E-035-008-MY2.

Funding

The funding was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (Grant Nos.: MOST-106-2221-E-005-066-MY3 and MOST 109-2222-E-035 -008 -MY2) and Ministry of Education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan

    Ping-Chen Chiang & Chih-Ming Chen

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan

    Yu-An Shen

  3. Innovation and Development Center of Sustainable Agriculture (IDCSA), National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 402, Taiwan

    Chih-Ming Chen

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  1. Ping-Chen Chiang
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  2. Yu-An Shen
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Correspondence to Yu-An Shen or Chih-Ming Chen.

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Chiang, PC., Shen, YA. & Chen, CM. Effects of impurities on void formation at the interface between Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Cu electroplated films. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 32, 11944–11951 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-05824-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-021-05824-7

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