Thermo-mechanical reliability studies of lead-free solder interconnects

N/ASolder interconnections, also known as solder joints, are the weakest link in electronics packaging. Reliability of these miniature joints is of utmost interest - especially in safety-critical applications in the automotive, medical, aerospace, power grid and oil and drilling sectors. Studies have shown that these joints' critical thermal and mechanical loading culminate in accelerated creep, fatigue, and a combination of these joints' induced failures. The ball grid array (BGA) components being an integral part of many electronic modules functioning in mission-critical systems. This study investigates the response of solder joints in BGA to crucial reliability influencing parameters derived from creep, visco-plastic and fatigue damage of the joints. These are the plastic strain, shear strain, plastic shear strain, creep energy density, strain energy density, deformation, equivalent (Von-Mises) stress etc. The parameters' obtained magnitudes are inputted into established life prediction models – Coffin-Manson, Engelmaier, Solomon (Low cycle fatigue) and Syed (Accumulated creep energy density) – to determine several BGA assemblies' fatigue lives. The joints are subjected to thermal, mechanical and random vibration loadings. The finite element analysis (FEA) is employed in a commercial software package to model and simulate the responses of the solder joints of the representative assemblies' finite element models. As the magnitude and rate of degradation of solder joints in the BGA significantly depend on the composition of the solder alloys used to assembly the BGA on the printed circuit board, this research studies the response of various mainstream lead-free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solders (SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 and SAC405) and benchmarked those with lead-based eutectic solder (Sn63Pb37). In the creep response study, the effects of thermal ageing and temperature cycling on these solder alloys' behaviours are explored. The results show superior creep properties for SAC405 and SAC396 lead-free solder alloys. The lead-free SAC405 solder joint is the most effective solder under thermal cycling condition, and the SAC396 solder joint is the most effective solder under isothermal ageing operation. The finding shows that SAC405 and SAC396 solders accumulated the minimum magnitudes of stress, strain rate, deformation rate and strain energy density than any other solder considered in this study. The hysteresis loops show that lead-free SAC405 has the lowest dissipated energy per cycle. Thus the highest fatigue life, followed by eutectic lead-based Sn63Pb37 solder. The solder with the highest dissipated energy per cycle was lead-free SAC305, SAC387 and SAC396 solder alloys. In the thermal fatigue life prediction research, four different lead-free (SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 and SAC405) and one eutectic lead-based (Sn63Pb37) solder alloys are defined against their thermal fatigue lives (TFLs) to predict their mean-time-to-failure for preventive maintenance advice. Five finite elements (FE) models of the assemblies of the BGAs with the different solder alloy compositions and properties are created with SolidWorks. The models are subjected to standard IEC 60749-25 temperature cycling in ANSYS 19.0 mechanical package environment. SAC405 joints have the highest predicted TFL of circa 13.2 years, while SAC387 joints have the least life of circa 1.4 years. The predicted lives are inversely proportional to the magnitude of the areas of stress-strain hysteresis loops of the solder joints. The prediction models are significantly consistent in predicted magnitudes across the solder joints irrespective of the damage parameters used. Several failure modes drive solder joints and damage mechanics from the research and understand an essential variation in the models' predicted values. This investigation presents a method of managing preventive maintenance time of BGA electronic components in mission-critical systems. It recommends developing a novel life prediction model based on a combination of the damage parameters for enhanced prediction. The FEA random vibration simulation test results showed that different solder alloys have a comparable performance during random vibration testing. The fatigue life result shows that SAC405 and SAC396 have the highest fatigue lives before being prone to failure. As a result of the FEA simulation outcomes with the application of Coffin-Manson's empirical formula, the author can predict the fatigue life of solder joint alloys to a higher degree of accuracy of average ~93% in an actual service environment such as the one experienced under-the-hood of an automobile and aerospace. Therefore, it is concluded that the combination of FEA simulation and empirical formulas employed in this study could be used in the computation and prediction of the fatigue life of solder joint alloys when subjected to random vibration. Based on the thermal and mechanical responses of lead-free SAC405 and SAC396 solder alloys, they are recommended as a suitable replacement of lead-based eutectic Sn63Pb37 solder alloy for improved device thermo-mechanical operations when subjected to random vibration (non-deterministic vibration). The FEA simulation studies' outcomes are validated using experimental and analytical-based reviews in published and peer-reviewed literature.N/

Creep response of various solders used in soldering ball grid array (BGA) on printed circuit board (PCB)

In electronics packaging, solder joints play a critical role by providing electrical, thermal and mechanical connections between the package and the printed circuit board (PCB). As the joint is both miniature and brittle, it is the weakest part of the assembly and thus susceptible to untimely damage. This paper presents the creep response of solder joints in a ball grid array (BGA) soldered on a PCB subjected to isothermal ageing in one experiment and temperature cycling in another test. The ageing is simulated in an ANSYS package environment at -40, 25, 75 and 150℃ temperatures applied for 45 days. The thermal cycling profile started from 22℃ and cycled between -40℃ and 150℃ with 15 minutes dwell time at the lowest and highest temperatures. The solders used in the investigation are lead-based eutectic solder alloy and lead-free SAC305, SAC387, and SAC396 solders. The research seeks to qualify these solders against strain and strain energy response for improved reliability in operation. The results show that the lead-free SAC387 accumulated the maximum strain and thus strain energy while the lead-based eutectic solder is found to accrue the least amount of the quantities. Further results show the distribution of damage in the BGA solder bump. Based on the results, it is proposed that lead-free SAC396 is the best replacement of the lead-based eutectic solder in the drive for the achievement of comparable thermo-mechanical reliability of assembled BGA on PCB.The authors thankfully acknowledge the funding contributions of the University of Derb

Comparing and benchmarking fatigue behaviours of various SAC solders under thermo-mechanical loading

While the fatigue behaviours (including fatigue life predictions) of lead-free solder joints have been extensively researched in the last 15 years, these are not adequately compared and benchmarked for different lead-free solders that are being used. As more and more fatigue properties of lead-free solders are becoming available, it is also critical to know how fatigue behaviours differ under different mathematical models. This paper addresses the challenges and presents a comparative study of fatigue behaviours of various mainstream lead-free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solders and benchmarked those with lead-based eutectic solder. Creep-induced fatigue and fatigue life of lead-based eutectic Sn63Pb37 and four lead-free SAC solder alloys: SAC305, SAC387, SAC396 and SAC405 are analysed through simulation studies. The Anand model is used to simulate the inelastic deformation behaviour of the solder joints under accelerated thermal cycling (ATC). It unifies the creep and rate-independent plastic behaviour and it is used to predict the complex stress-strain relationship of solders under different temperatures and strain rates, which are required in the prediction of fatigue life using the fatigue life models such as Engelmaier, Coffin-Mason and Solomon as the basis of our comparison. The ATC was carried out using temperature range from −40°C to 150°C. The fatigue damage propagation is determined with finite element (FE) simulation, which allows virtual prototyping in the design process of electronics devices. The simulation was carried out on a BGA (36 balls, 6 × 6 matrix) mounted onto Cu padded substrate. Results are analysed for plastic strain, Von mises stress, strain energy density, and stress-strain hysteresis loop. The simulation results show that the fatigue behaviours of lead-based eutectic Sn63Pb37 solder is comparable to those of lead-free SAC solders. Among the four SAC solders, SAC387 consistently produced higher plastic strain, strain energy and stress than the other solders. The fatigue life’s estimation of the solder joint was investigated using Engelmaier, Coffin-Manson, and Solomon models. Results obtained show that SAC405 has the highest fatigue life (25.7, 21.1 and 19.2 years) followed by SAC396 (18.7, 20.3 and 17.9 years) and SAC305 (15.2, 13.6 and 16.2 years) solder alloys respectively. Predicting the fatigue life of these solder joints averts problems in electronics design for reliability and quality, which if not taken care of, may result in lost revenue. Predictive fatigue analysis can also considerably reduce premature failure, and modern analysis technique such as one used in this research is progressively helping to provide comprehensive product life expectancy data.University of Derb