Advertisement

Journal of Materials Science

, Volume 45, Issue 2, pp 334–340 | Cite as

Electromigration-induced Bi-rich whisker growth in Cu/Sn–58Bi/Cu solder joints

  • Hongwen HeEmail author
  • Guangchen Xu
  • Fu Guo
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Effect of current stressing on whisker growth in Cu/Sn–58Bi/Cu solder joints was investigated with current densities of 5 × 103 and 104 A/cm2 in oven at different temperatures. Two types of whiskers, columnar-type and filament-type, were observed on the solder film propagating along the surface of the Cu substrate and at the cathode interface, respectively, accompanied with many hillocks formation. Typically, these whiskers were 5–15 μm in length and 0.06–2 μm in diameter. EDX revealed that these whiskers and hillocks were mixtures of Sn and Bi rather than single crystal. It should be noted that the sprouted whiskers would not grow any more even if the current-stressing time increased again when the solder joint was stressed under lower current density. Nevertheless, when the current density was up to 104 A/cm2, the whiskers would melt along with the increasing current-stressing time. Results indicated that the compressive stress generated by precipitation of Cu6Sn5 intermetallics provides a driving force for whisker growth on the solder film, and the Joule heating accumulation should be responsible for whisker growth at the cathode interface.

Keywords

Solder Joint Solder Ball Whisker Growth Solder Matrix Whisker Formation 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the financial support of this work from the New Century Talent Support Program, Ministry of Education, and the Funding Project PHR (IHLB).

References

  1. 1.
    Nah JW, Paik KW, Suh JO, Tu KN (2003) J Appl Phys 94:7560CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. 2.
    Lin YC, Zhong J (2008) J Mater Sci 43(9):3072. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-007-2320-4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. 3.
    Lin YH, Hu YC, Tsai CM, Kao CR, Tu KN (2005) Acta Mater 53:2029CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. 4.
    Lin YW, Lai YS, Lin YL, Tu C-T, Kao CR (2007) J Electron Mater 37:17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. 5.
    Kakeshita T, Kawanaka R, Hasegawa T (1982) J Mater Sci 17:2560. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00543888 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. 6.
    Lin YW, Lai YS (2008) J Electron Mater 37(1):17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. 7.
    Yuki F, Michael O, Michael P (2007) Microelectron Reliab 47:88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. 8.
    Hu C-C, Tsai Y-D, Lin C-C, Lee G-L, Chen S-W, Lee T-C, Wen T-C (2008) J Alloy Compd 472:121. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2008.04.094 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. 9.
    He HW, Xu GC, Guo F (2009) J Mater Sci 44(8):2089. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-009-3276-3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 10.
    Chen C-M, Huang C-C (2008) J Mater Res 23(4):1051CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. 11.
    Chen ZG (2002) J Electron Mater 31(10):1122CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. 12.
    Chen ZG (2003) Ph.D. Thesis, Beijing University of TechnologyGoogle Scholar
  13. 13.
    Guo F, Xu GC, He HW (2009) J Mater Sci 44(20):5595. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-009-3787-y CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. 14.
    Hongwen HE, Guangchen XU, Hu HAO et al (2007) ICEPT, Shanghai, China, pp 225–229Google Scholar
  15. 15.
    Boettinger WJ, Johnson CE, Bendersky LA, Moon KW, Williams ME, Stafford GR (2005) Acta Mater 53:5033CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. 16.
    Choi WJ, Lee TY, Tu KN (2003) Acta Mater 51:6253CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. 17.
    Tu KN, Chen C, Wu AT (2007) J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 18:269Google Scholar
  18. 18.
    Jung K, Conrad H (2004) J Mater Sci 39:1803. doi: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JMSC.0000016189.01285.35 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. 19.
    Gu X, Chan YC (2008) J Electron Mater 37:1721CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. 20.
    Galyon GT, Palmer L (2005) IEEE Trans Electron Packag Manuf 28(1):17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. 21.
    Ma HT (2009) J Mater Sci 44(14):3841. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-009-3521-9 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. 22.
    Cheng F, Nishikawa H, Takemoto T (2008) J Mater Sci 43(10):3643. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-008-2580-7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.College of Materials Science and EngineeringBeijing University of TechnologyBeijingPeople’s Republic of China

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options