Effect of Ni Plating Thickness on Fatigue Failure of Lead-free Solder Joints

Author

Omiya, Masaki ; Miyazaki, Takeshi ; Inoue, Hirotsugu ; Kishimoto, Kikuo ; Amagai, Masazumi

Author_Institution

Tokyo Inst. of Technol., Tokyo

fYear

2006

fDate

11-14 Dec. 2006

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of plating thickness on fatigue failure of lead-free solder joints after thermal aging. Cyclic three-point bending tests were carried out and investigate the relationships between intermetallic compound (IMC) layer development and the fatigue life of solder joints. After the fatigue tests, cross- sections of solder joint were observed by scanning electron microscope(SEM) and crack propagation paths were investigated. The results show that when the thickness of nickel plating layer is too thin, voids in solder were observed and the fatigue life of solder joints were short. On the other hands, when the thickness of nickel plating layer is too thick, thick IMC layers were formed between solder and plating layers and developed after thermal aging. The optimum thickness of nickel plating layer in this study was 0.08 or 0.12 mum. In these cases, the nickel layer diffused into the solder and was consumed completely to form IMC layer during reflow process. Then, the development of IMC layer was not occurred and good fatigue strengths were obtained.

Keywords

bending; cracks; failure (mechanical); fatigue testing; integrated circuit interconnections; integrated circuit packaging; integrated circuit reliability; integrated circuit testing; life testing; nickel alloys; reflow soldering; scanning electron microscopy; solders; thermal management (packaging); voids (solid); IC chip connections; Ni; crack propagation paths; cyclic three-point bending tests; fatigue failure; fatigue strength; intermetallic compound layer development; lead-free solder joints; nickel plating thickness effect; reflow process; scanning electron microscope; size 0.08 mum; size 0.12 mum; solder joints fatigue life test; thermal aging; voids; Aging; Copper; Environmentally friendly manufacturing techniques; Fatigue; Gold; Intermetallic; Lead; Nickel; Packaging; Soldering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electronic Materials and Packaging, 2006. EMAP 2006. International Conference on

Conference_Location

Kowloon

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-0834-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-0834-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EMAP.2006.4430655

Filename

4430655