Stress relaxation behavior and low cycle fatigue behavior of bulk SAC 305

Solder plays a critical role in packaging because it serves several functions including electrical contacts, mechanical support, adhesion, and signal interconnections. In an attempt to reduce both the environmental and health concerns with using Pb lead based components in electronic packaging, legislation has been passed. One of the main alloys that is used as lead free solder material is SnAgCu (SAC) in varying compositions for several reasons. Fatigue Studies of SAC 305 solder samples in various geometries specific for microelectronic packaging has been performed [1-3]. However, there is a need to study the bulk material properties to further understand the performance of SAC 305 in a non-microelectronics setting. Some fatigue studies involving bulk solder have been conducted [4-9], but more work needs to be performed to completely understand the behavior of SAC 305.