The Effect of Micron-Size Silicon Additions on Microstructure, Microhardness and Thermal Properties of Sn-Cu-Ni Solder Alloy

Abstract

The effect of Si particulate addition on the commercial Sn-Cu-Ni solder system (SN100C) solder alloy has been investigated. The SN100C/Si composite solder was fabricated via powder metallurgy (PM) technique. In this study five different Si composition chosen were (0 wt. %, 0.25 wt. %, 0.5 wt. %, 0.75 wt. %, and 1.0 wt. %). The results indicated that adding a small amount of Si particulate can slightly improve the physical properties of the composite solder compared to monolithic solder alloy. Microstructural analysis revealed the reinforcement seen well distributed between the grains boundaries with additions of 1.0 wt. % resulted with highest hardness value.