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Solderability of additively manufactured pure copper and the effect of surface modification

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Abstract

Additive manufacturing of copper enables enhanced design freedom which allows for improved performance of components in thermal management and electrical applications. Joining via soldering provides ideal electrical and thermal connections, but the solderability of complex additively manufactured surfaces is poorly understood. In the present work, the solderability of nominally pure copper coupons manufactured by three additive manufacturing techniques (laser powder bed fusion, laser engineered net shaping, and bound powder extrusion) was experimentally assessed using the wetting balance technique and pin pull testing. Coupons produced by each method were tested as built and after surface modification by dry electropolishing. Contact angles and wetting times were calculated from wettability testing. Peak tensile loads required to remove pins soldered to coupons were also recorded for each surface condition. The dipped coupons and solder joint fracture surfaces were examined with optical and scanning electron microscopes. It was found that nonuniform wetting and excessive wicking of solder can result in weak joints, and surface modification positively affected overall solderability in all cases. All surfaces were shown to be wettable, but bound powder extrusion was found to produce the most solderable copper surfaces among the additive manufacturing methods tested.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Levi Van Bastian and Sam Moran for their help printing samples, Mike Melia and Elliot Fowler for their contribution to surface modification, and Jeier Yang for help setting up solderability experiments.

Funding

Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, 87123, USA

    Joseph C. Erwin & Benjamin C. White

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131, USA

    Joseph C. Erwin & Pankaj Kumar

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  1. Joseph C. Erwin
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  2. Pankaj Kumar
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Contributions

Joseph Erwin: ideation, investigation, writing (main draft). Pankaj Kumar: ideation, writing (review and editing). Benjamin White: ideation, writing (review and editing), project supervision.

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Correspondence to Benjamin C. White.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Department of Energy or the United States Government.

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Erwin, J.C., Kumar, P. & White, B.C. Solderability of additively manufactured pure copper and the effect of surface modification. Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-024-13775-6

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