Effect of Sb additions on the creep behaviour of low temperature lead-free Sn–8Zn–3Bi solder alloy
Soldering & Surface Mount Technology
ISSN: 0954-0911
Article publication date: 26 October 2020
Issue publication date: 17 May 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the creep behaviour of the recently developed Sn–8Zn–3Bi–xSb (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5) low temperature lead-free solder alloys.
Design/methodology/approach
An in-house compressive test rig was developed to perform creep tests under stresses of 20–40 MPa and temperature range 25°C–75 °C. Dorn power law and Garofalo hyperbolic sine law were used to model the secondary creep rate.
Findings
High coefficient of determination R2 of 0.99 is achieved for both the models. It was found that the activation energy of Sn–8Zn–3Bi solder alloy can be significantly increased with addition of Sb, by 60% to 90 kJ/mol approximately, whereas the secondary creep exponent falls in the range 3–7. Improved creep resistance is attributed to solid solution strengthening introduced by micro-alloying. Creep mechanisms that govern the deformation of these newly developed lead-free solder alloys have also been proposed.
Originality/value
The findings are expected to fill the gap of knowledge on creep behaviour of these newly developed solder alloys, which are possible alternatives as lead-free interconnecting material in low temperature electronic assembly.
Keywords
Citation
Ren, G. and Collins, M. (2021), "Effect of Sb additions on the creep behaviour of low temperature lead-free Sn–8Zn–3Bi solder alloy", Soldering & Surface Mount Technology, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 159-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSMT-05-2020-0023
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited