Influence of the microstructure on the stress state of solder joints during thermal cycling

The lifetime of a solder joint is mainly determined by its creep behaviour. Creep arises from the stresses inside the solder joints as a consequence of the thermomechanical mismatch of the board and the substrate. The stress state is heavily influenced by the anisotropy of tin. To understand the damage process in solder joints, the influence of the anisotropic microstructure must be understood. In this paper the influence of different grain sizes, shapes and orientations on the stress state is evaluated, based on numerical experiments.