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In this paper, a lifetime estimation model for the solder joint is proposed which is capable of considering both severe and running mechanical shocks which is the real case in electric converters in the automotive and aerospace applications. This paper aims to asses the reliability of the solder joint under mixed exposure of mechanical loads.

Mechanical failure process may put at risk the perfect performance of any kinds of electronic systems regardless of the applications they are prepared for. Observation of solder joint health in an electronic assembly under simultaneous exposure of severe and running shocks is an open problem. Three commonly used soldering compositions are considered while the electronic assembly is exposed to three well-known driving cycles.

The results show that the best performance is achieved using SAC405 soldering alloy in comparison with Sn63Pb37 and SAC387 solder alloy. Consideration of mixed exposure to the mechanical loads leads to much more accurate lifetime estimation of the solder joint in the electronic assemblies.

The originality of the paper is confirmed.

Recycling technology for printed wiring boards (PWBs) with mounted electronic components was studied for the purpose of disassembling the boards, recovering useful materials, and reusing these materials. An automatic removal method was developed for the electronic components on the basis of a combination of heating to above the solder melting temperature and applying impacting the shearing forces. Most of the electronic components were recovered undamaged and the solder was able to be recovered as particles. The solder remaining on the board was recovered by abrading the board surface and by using a heating‐impacting process. After these processes, the resin board (a cured epoxy resin board reinforced with glass fibre)was pulverised and separated into a copper‐rich powder (copper: 82 Wt%) and a glass fibre and resin mixture powder (glass fibre‐resin powder) by gravimetric and electrostatic methods. The recovered electronic components, solder and copper‐rich powder were used as valuable metal resources for refining. Moreover, the recovered glass fibre‐resin powder was found to be a useful filler for plastic products such as epoxy resin and ABS (acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene copolymer) resin.

In terms of science, technologies and end‐use applications, ‘lead‐free solders’ are a very broad subject. This paper is intended to highlight the key issues of this broad subject for its applications in electronic packaging and assembly. The areas covered include the main thrusts behind the research and development effort, the scientific approaches, economic and practical considerations, and regulatory and legislative perspectives of lead. In addition, this paper will present the new findings as a result of research and development effort on lead‐free solders. Technologically, in view of the current and future needs in interconnecting materials, the first objective of this work is to demonstrate the ability to provide lead‐free solders in lieu of conventional lead‐bearing solders without mandating significant changes in manufacturing processes and/or equipment which have been established and proven in the industry. The second objective is to design the lead‐free solders which are able to offer superior performance to their Sn/Pb counterparts, thus providing solder interconnections with higher reliability and endurance during service life. The fulfilment of these two objectives will concurrently address the two critical technological areas in the field of solders, namely the inherent vulnerability of conventional solders to temperature and stress, and the concerns of toxicity and health hazard of lead. Based on materials principles, ternary and quaternary lead‐free systems are at present being designed. The work conducted thus far demonstrates that two of the designed solder compositions show great promise. In comparison with 63Sn/37Pb eutectic solder, the new lead‐free compositions exhibit superior performance in shear strength, creep resistance and thermomechanical fatigue resistance. This paper will also cover the data in mechanical testings, the summary of microstructure evaluation (with detailed elucidation omitted), and low‐cycle fatigue fractoqraphy examination of the designed lead‐free compositions.

As in real applications several alternating current (AC) currents may be injected to the electronic devices, this study aims to analyze their effects on the lifetime of the solder joints and, consequently, shed the light on these effects at the design phase for other researchers to consider.

In this paper, the authors investigated on current waveform shapes on the performance and reliability of the solder joints in electronic package. Three common and extensively used current shapes in several simulations and experiments were selected to study their effects on the solder joint performance.

The results demonstrate a sever thermal swing and stress fluctuation in the solder joint induced in the case of triangle current type because the critical states lack any relaxation time. In fact, the stress intensification in the solder under application of the triangle current type has been shown to contribute to increasing brittle intermetallic compounds. An accelerated increase of on-state voltage of power semiconductor was also observed in under application of the triangle current type.

The originality of this paper is confirmed.

There are several lead-free solder alloys available in the industry. Over the years, the most favorable solder composition of tin-silver-copper (Sn-Ag-Cu [SAC]) has been vastly used and accepted for joining the electronic components. It is strongly believed that the silver (Ag) content has a significant impact on the solder mechanical behavior and thus solder thermal reliability performance. This paper aims to assess the mechanical response, i.e. creep response, of the SAC solder alloys with various Ag contents.

A three-dimensional nonlinear finite element simulation is used to investigate the thermal cyclic behavior of several SAC solder alloys with various silver percentages, including 1%, 2%, 3% and 4%. The mechanical properties of the unleaded interconnects with various Ag amounts are collected from reliable literature resources and used in the analysis accordingly. Furthermore, the solder creep behavior is examined using the two famous creep laws, namely, Garofalo’s and Anand’s models.

The nonlinear computational analysis results showed that the silver content has a great influence on the solder behavior as well as on thermal fatigue life expectancy. Specifically, solders with relatively high Ag content are expected to have lower plastic deformations and strains and thus better fatigue performance due to their higher strengths and failure resistance characteristics. However, such solders would have contrary fatigue performance in drop and shock environments and the low-Ag content solders are presumed to perform significantly better because of their higher ductility.

Generally, this research recommends the use of SAC solder interconnects of high silver contents, e.g. 3% and 4%, for designing electronic assemblies continuously exposed to thermal loadings and solders with relatively low Ag-content, i.e. 1% and 2%, for electronic packages under impact and shock loadings.

Eutectic Sn‐Ag solder is being considered as a potential replacement for Sn‐Pb solders. A potential drawback to using the eutectic Sn‐Ag solder is its higher melting point, 221°C, compared with the eutectic Pb‐Sn solder. Owing to its higher melting temperature, the eutectic Sn‐Ag solder is also being considered for automotive under‐the‐hood applications, which experience high temperature environments. Electronic components and/or circuit boards are often coated with Pb‐bearing solder to facilitate soldering operations. Soldering Pb‐bearing solder coated components and/or boards with eutectic Sn‐Ag solder will result in joints contaminated with Pb. In this study, the effects of Pb contamination on eutectic Sn‐Ag solder joints were investigated using three ternary alloys made by incorporating some Pb into eutectic Sn‐Ag solder. These ternary alloys all showed a peak at 178°C in heating curves obtained using Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), which resulted from the ternary eutectic composition in the Sn‐Ag‐Pb system. The Pb phases in the ternary alloys were found to be dispersed throughout the microstructure. A practical implication of Pb contamination in eutectic Sn‐Ag solder joints is that the service temperature of such joints would be limited by the lower melting temperature of the ternary eutectic phase.

Vapor phase soldering (VPS), also known as condense soldering, is capable of improving the mechanical reliability of solder joints in electronic packaging structures. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

In the present study, VPS is utilized to assemble two typical packaging types (i.e. ceramic column grid array (CCGA) and BGA) for electronic devices with lead-containing and lead-free solders. By applying the peak soldering temperatures of 215°C and 235°C with and without vacuum condition, the void formation and intermetallic compound (IMC) thickness are compared for different packaging structures with lead-containing and lead-free solder alloys.

It is found that at the soldering temperature of 215°C, CCGA under a vacuum condition has fewer voids but BGA without vacuum environment has fewer voids despite of the existence of lead in solder alloy. In light of contradictory phenomenon about void formation at 215°C, a similar CCGA device is soldered via VPS at the temperature of 235°C. Compared with the size of voids formed at 215°C, no obvious void is found for CCGA with vacuum at the soldering temperature of 235°C. No matter what soldering temperature and vacuum condition are applied, the IMC thickness of CCGA and BGA can satisfy the requirement of 1.0–3.0 µm. Therefore, it can be concluded that the soldering temperature of 235°C in vacuum is the optimal VPS condition for void elimination. In addition, shear tests at the rate of 10 mm/min are performed to examine the load resistance and potential failure mode. In terms of failure mode observed in shear tests, interfacial shear failure occurs between PCB and bulk solder and also within bulk solder for CCGA soldered at temperatures of 215°C and 235°C. This means that an acceptable thicker IMC thickness between CCGA solder and device provides greater interfacial strength between CCGA and device.

Due to its high I/O capacity and satisfactory reliability in electrical and thermal performance, CCGA electronic devices have been widely adopted in the military and aerospace fields. In the present study, the authors utilized VPS to assemble a typical type of CCGA with the control package of conventional BGA to investigate the relation between essential condition (i.e. soldering temperature and vacuum) to void formation.

This study aims to analyze the shear strength and fracture mechanism of full Cu-Sn IMCs joints with different Cu₃Sn proportion and joints with the conventional interfacial structure in electronic packaging.

The Cu-Sn IMCs joints with different Cu₃Sn proportion were fabricated through soldering Cu-6 μm Sn-Cu sandwich structure under the extended soldering time and suitable pressure. The joints of conventional interfacial structure were fabricated through soldering Cu-100 μm Sn-Cu sandwich structure. After the shear test was conducted, the fracture mechanism of different joints was studied through observing the cross-sectional fracture morphology and top-view fracture morphology of sheared joints.

The strength of joints with the conventional interfacial structure was 26.6 MPa, while the strength of full Cu-Sn IMCs joints with 46.7, 60.6, 76.7 and 100 per cent Cu₃Sn was, respectively, 33.5, 39.7, 45.7 and 57.9 MPa. The detailed reason for the strength of joints showing such regularity was proposed. For the joint of conventional interfacial structure, the microvoids accumulation fracture happened within the Sn solder. However, for the full Cu-Sn IMCs joint with 46.7 per cent Cu₃Sn, the cleavage fracture happened within the Cu6Sn5. As the Cu₃Sn proportion increased to 60.6 per cent, the inter-granular fracture, which resulted in the interfacial delamination of Cu₃Sn and Cu6Sn5, occurred along the Cu₃Sn/Cu6Sn5 interface, while the cleavage fracture happened within the Cu6Sn5. Then, with the Cu₃Sn proportion increasing to 76.7 per cent, the cleavage fracture happened within the Cu6Sn5, while the transgranular fracture happened within the Cu₃Sn. The inter-granular fracture, which led to the interfacial delamination of Cu₃Sn and Cu, happened along the Cu/Cu₃Sn interface. For the full Cu₃Sn joint, the cleavage fracture happened within the Cu₃Sn.

The shear strength and fracture mechanism of full Cu-Sn IMCs joints was systematically studied. A direct comparison regarding the shear strength and fracture mechanism between the full Cu-Sn IMCs joints and joints with the conventional interfacial structure was conducted.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of aging temperature on the barrel-type solder joint lifetime of electronic devices and to include these effects in the modified prediction model.

Several accelerated shear stress tests under different stress amplitudes and aging temperatures were performed.

It was found that by aging temperature increasing, the lifetime decreases. Morrow energy model was also found as the best prediction model when the aging temperature is taken into consideration.

It is confirmed.

This paper discusses the microstructures of solder joints and the mechanism of thermal fatigue, which is an important source of failure in electronic devices. The solder joints studied were near‐eutectic Pb‐Sn solder contacts on copper. The microstructure of the joints is described. While the fatigue life of near‐eutectic solder joints is strongly dependent on the operating conditions and on the microstructure of the joint, the metallurgical mechanisms of failure are surprisingly constant. When the cyclic load is in shear at temperatures above room temperature the shear strain is inhomogeneous, and induces a rapid coarsening of the eutectic microstructure that concentrates the deformation in well‐defined bands parallel to the joint interface. Fatigue cracks propagate along the Sn‐Sn grain boundaries and join across the Pb‐rich regions to cause ultimate failure. The failure occurs through the bulk solder unless the joint is so thin that the intermetallic layer at the interface is a significant fraction of the joint thickness, in which case failure may be accelerated by cracking through the intermetallic layer. The coarsening and subsequent failure are influenced more strongly by the number of thermal cycles than by the time of exposure to high temperature, at least for hold times up to one hour. Thermal fatigue in tension does not cause well‐defined coarsened bands, but often leads to rapid failure through cracking of the brittle intermetallic layer. Implications are drawn for the design of accelerated fatigue tests and the development of new solders with exceptional fatigue resistance.