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Microvoid Formation at Solder–Copper Interfaces During Annealing: a Systematic Study of the Root Cause

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Abstract

The electrodeposition conditions that contribute to microvoid formation during isothermal aging of Pb-free solder-electrodeposited copper were evaluated in a systematic series of processing experiments. The results of 2K full-factorial design of experiment are presented to show the effect of prescreened electroplating parameters such as brighteners, wetting agent, bath age, and current density on the propensity for microvoiding at solder–copper interfaces after annealing at 125°C for 40 days. It was found that the amount of microvoiding is greatly affected by bath age, wetting agent, brightener, and their interactions. Time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectroscopy and glow discharge spectroscopy allowed us to establish a correlation between impurities incorporated in copper during electroplating and microvoiding at the solder–copper interface.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    Santosh Kumar & Carol A. Handwerker

  2. Alcatel-Lucent, Plano, TX, 75075, USA

    Joseph Smetana

  3. Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA, 95054, USA

    David Love

  4. MacDermid Inc., Waterbury, CT, 06702, USA

    James Watkowski

  5. Delphi Electronics & Safety, Kokomo, IN, 46904, USA

    Richard Parker

  6. High Density Packaging User Group (HDPUG) International, Scottsdale, AZ, 85253, USA

    Joseph Smetana & David Love

Authors
  1. Santosh Kumar
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  2. Joseph Smetana
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  3. David Love
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  4. James Watkowski
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  5. Richard Parker
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  6. Carol A. Handwerker
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Correspondence to Santosh Kumar.

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Kumar, S., Smetana, J., Love, D. et al. Microvoid Formation at Solder–Copper Interfaces During Annealing: a Systematic Study of the Root Cause. J. Electron. Mater. 40, 2415–2424 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-011-1768-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-011-1768-9

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