Fatigue Properties and Microstructure of SnAgCu Bi-Based Solder Joint

Abstract

Abstract The reliability of solder joints plays a critical role in electronic assemblies. SnAgCu solder alloys with doped elements such as Bi and Sb is one of the candidates for high reliability applications. However, the mechanical and fatigue properties of the actual solder joint structure have not been studied for these new alloys. In this paper, a cyclic fatigue test was conducted on individual real solder joints of different alloys, including SnAgCu, SnCu–Bi, SnAgCu–Bi, and SnAgCu–BiSb. The fatigue property of those solder joints was analyzed based on the characteristic fatigue life and stress–strain, hysteresis, loops. The results show that solder joints with both Ag and Bi content have a better fatigue resistance than the solder joints with Ag or Bi content only. The results of SnAgCu and SnCu–Bi solder alloys show similar fatigue performance. Also, the fatigue performance of SnAgCu–Bi is close to SnAgCu–BiSb in the accelerated test. But the SnAgCu–Bi alloy is estimated to have a longer characteristic life under low-stress amplitude cycling. The microstructure analysis shows a bismuth-rich phase formed around the Ag3Sn precipitates. Adding bismuth in the solder alloy can significantly improve the fatigue properties through solid solution hardenings. On another hand, the plastic strain range and work dissipation were measured from the hysteresis loops for all tests. The Morrow Energy and the Coffin–Manson models were developed from the fitted data to predict the fatigue life as a function of work dissipation and plastic strain range.