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Effects of Sn-Ag-x leveling layers on the microstructure and shear behavior of Sn-58Bi solder joint under thermal cycling

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Abstract

Four Sn-Ag-x (Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu-0.5Bi-0.05Ni, and Sn-3.0Ag-3.0Bi-3.0In) leveling layers were coated on Cu substrate to improve the reliability of Sn-58Bi (SnBi) solder joints under thermal cycling. The microstructure, interfacial intermetallic compounds (IMC), and shear behavior of the solder joints under thermal cycling conditions were investigated. The microstructure of the solder joint becomes coarsened after thermal cycling test. After 700 thermal cycles, the SnBi/Sn-Ag-x/Cu solder joint shows a more refined microstructure than the SnBi joint does. The interfacial IMC of SnBi/Cu solder joints and SnBi/Sn-Ag-x/Cu solder joints become thicker as the thermal cycle increases. However, the IMC growth rate of SnBi/Sn-Ag-x/Cu is significantly lower than that of SnBi/Cu. Meanwhile, the Sn-Ag-x leveling layers effectively suppress the growth of the Cu3Sn IMC layer. The thermal cycling environment decreases the bonding strength of all solder joints. The shear strength of the SnBi/Sn-Ag-x/Cu solder joint is higher than that of SnBi/Cu under the same conditions. The brittle damage induced by the thermal cycling is suppressed by the addition of the Sn-Ag-x leveling layers.

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The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

    Huifeng Chen

  2. College of Electrical, Energy and Power Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China

    Huifeng Chen, Yang Liu, Rongxing Cao & Yuxiong Xue

  3. Flowmeter Branch, Chongqing Chuanyi Automation Co.,Ltd, Chongqing, China

    Shuang Zhang

  4. School of Material Science and Engineering, Harbin University of Science and Technology, Harbin, China

    Shuang Zhang

Authors
  1. Huifeng Chen
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  2. Yang Liu
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  3. Shuang Zhang
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  4. Rongxing Cao
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  5. Yuxiong Xue
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Contributions

HC: investigation, writing-review & editing. YL: conceptualization, methodology. SZ: investigation, writing-original draft. RC: investigation. YX: supervision.

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Correspondence to Yang Liu or Shuang Zhang.

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Chen, H., Liu, Y., Zhang, S. et al. Effects of Sn-Ag-x leveling layers on the microstructure and shear behavior of Sn-58Bi solder joint under thermal cycling. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 34, 223 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09590-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-09590-y

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