Exploration of aging induced evolution of solder joints using nanoindentation and microdiffraction

Due to aging phenomena, the microstructure, mechanical response, and failure behavior of lead free solder joints in electronic assemblies are constantly evolving when exposed to isothermal and/or thermal cycling environments. In our ongoing studies, we are exploring aging phenomena by nano-mechanical testing of SAC lead free solder joints extracted from PBGA assemblies. Using nanoindentation techniques, the stress-strain and creep behavior of the SAC solder materials are being explored at the joint scale for various aging conditions. Mechanical properties characterized as a function of aging include the elastic modulus, hardness, and yield stress. Using a constant force at max indentation, the creep response of the aged and non-aged solder joint materials is also being measured as a function of the applied stress level. With these approaches, aging effects in actual solder joints are being quantified and correlated to the magnitudes of those observed in testing of miniature bulk specimens. In our initial work (ECTC 2013), we explored aging effects in single grain SAC305 solder joints. In the current investigation, we have extended our previous work on nanoindentation of joints to examine a full test matrix of SAC solder alloys. The effects of silver content on SAC solder aging has been evaluated by testing joints from SACN05 (SAC105, SAC205, SAC305, and SAC405) test boards assembled with the same reflow profile. In all cases, the tested joints were extracted from 14 × 14 mm PBGA assemblies (0.8 mm ball pitch, 0.46 mm ball diameter) that are part of the iNEMI Characterization of Pb-Free Alloy Alternatives Project (16 different solder joint alloys available). After extraction, the joints were subjected to various aging conditions (0 to 12 months of aging at T = 125 C), and then tested via nanoindentation techniques to evaluate the stress-strain and creep behavior of the four aged SAC solder alloy materials at the joint scale. The observed aging effects in the SACN05 solder joints have been quantified and correlated with the magnitudes observed in tensile testing of miniature bulk specimens performed in prior studies. The results show that the aging induced degradations of the mechanical properties (modulus, hardness) in the SAC joints were of similar order (30-40%) as those seen previously in the testing of larger “bulk” uniaxial solder specimens. The creep rates of the various tested SACN05 joints were found to increase by 8-50X due to aging. These degradations, while significant, were much less than those observed in larger bulk solder uniaxial tensile specimens with several hundred grains, where the increases ranged from 200X to 10000X for the various SACN05 alloys. Additional testing has been performed on very small tensile specimens with approximately 10 grains, and the aging-induced creep rate degradations found in these specimens were on the same order of magnitude as those observed in the single grain joints. Thus, the lack of the grain boundary sliding creep mechanism in the single grain joints is an important factor in avoiding the extremely large creep rate degradations (up to 10,000X) occurring in larger bulk SAC samples. All of the aging effects observed in the SACN05 joints were found to be exacerbated as the silver content in the alloy was reduced. In addition, the test results for all of the alloys show that the elastic, plastic, and creep properties of the solder joints and their sensitivities to aging are highly dependent on the crystal orientation. The observed mechanical behavior changes in joints are due to evolution in the microstructure and residual strains/stresses in the solder material, and measurements of these evolutions are critical to developing a fundamental understanding of solder joint aging phenomena. As another part of this work, we have performed an initial study of these effects in the same SAC305 solder joints that were tested using nanoindentation. The enhanced x-ray microdiffraction technique at the Advanced Light Source (Synchrotron) at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was employed to characterize several joints after various aging exposures (0, 1, and 7 days of aging at T = 125 C). For each joint, microdiffraction was used to examine grain growth, grain rotation, sub-grain formation, and residual strain and stress evolution as a function of the aging exposure. The entire joints were scanned using a 10 micron step size, and the results were correlated with changes in the mechanical response of the joint specimens measured by nanoindentation.