Evaluation Technique for The Failure Life Scatter of Lead-Free Solder Joints in Electronic Device

Recently, the electronic device equipment using a semiconductor is widespread to all industrial fields. Solder is used to mount electronic parts, such as resistors and capacitors, on printed-circuit boards in almost all electronic devices. However, since in many cases the thermal expansion coefficients of electronic parts and PCBs are different, cyclic thermal stress and strain causes solder fatigue and device failure. Especially in the power electronic module and car electric module, the evaluation of thermal fatigue life is important. It is understood that the fatigue life of some electronic devices shows large scatter in the thermal cycle test, even if their design is the same. The dispersion of design factors such as shape, size and material properties of solder joints is thought as one of these reasons. Moreover, in the case of chip components, it is thought that the interacting effect by the structural asymmetry due to the unbalance solder joints would influence reliability. At the same time, the changeover from eutectic Sn-Pb solder to lead-free solder has been driven by environmental concerns. Therefore, it cannot be disregard as the main factor of the reliability evaluation in the solder joints. In this study, how the dispersion of design factors and the interacting effect between the design factors influences the fatigue life in lead-free solder joint was investigated by the analytical approach. It is understood that the thermal fatigue life of solder joints can be estimated by the inelastic strain range obtained from the FEM analysis. Recently, it is demanded to evaluate the final failure life of electronic components. So, it is necessary to evaluate not only crack initiation but also crack propagation. In this study, crack propagation analysis was carried out by using a new approach and the failure life was evaluated on the basis of Manson-Coffin's law and Miner's rule. Moreover, sensitivity analyses were carried out to study the main effect of the dispersion of each factor on solder joints. And then, the interacting effect between the factors on the reliability was studied by considering the structural asymmetry due to the unbalanced solder joints. As a result, a practical evaluating technique for the failure life scatter of solder joints was proposed