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Ag sinter joining technology has gained increasing attention for its excellent thermal and mechanical properties, especially for high-temperature applications. This study focuses on the lifetime prediction of a SiC power module by Ag sinter joining based on mechanical properties including tensile, fatigue, and creep properties from room temperature to 200°C, as well as thermal properties including thermal conduction and the coefficient of thermal expansion. These mechanical properties and thermal properties of sintered Ag paste were evaluated in the study and the results show that mechanical properties of sintered Ag largely depend on the test temperature. The sintered Ag paste tends to soften at high temperature, and the fracture changed from nearly brittle to totally ductile with the testing temperature increase. From the S–N curve, the fatigue is close to the Morrow equation but not the Coffin–Manson law at room temperature. The finite element simulation of the lifetime based on Morrow’s equation for the sintered Ag layer shows that there has a crack occurrence with one fourth the side length after 10,000 cycles from − 40°C to 200°C but the crack extension area is less than one tenth of the sintered Ag layer. This study will add to the understanding of the high temperature properties and high temperature reliability as well as the lifetime of Ag sinter joining in high-temperature applications.

Whiskering is a spontaneous filamentary growth of material, and it is a major long-term reliability issue affecting microelectronic packages comprising Sn plating and Sn-rich solders. In particular, whisker growth out of Sn-plated surfaces has been studied extensively in recent years due to the advent of next-generation, environment-friendly, Pb-free microelectronic packaging. Here, we review this scientifically challenging and technologically important problem, especially in the light of relatively new insights gained in the recent past, intending to provide a quick overview of the important results and stimulating future studies. In particular, we discuss the mechanisms of whisker growth by critically examining the roles of stress and its regeneration, oxide layer, diffusion conduits, and crystal anisotropy in creating conditions conducive for whiskering. We also discuss the recent proposals for effectively mitigating whisker growth in Sn coatings. Finally, an outlook is provided, with details of important unresolved issues related to whisker growth.

The coarsening of Ag 3 Sn particles occurs during the operation of joints and plays an important role in failure. Here, Ag 3 Sn coarsening is studied at 125°C in the eutectic regions of Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu/Cu solder joints by SEM-based time-lapse imaging. Using multi-step thresholding segmentation and image analysis, it is shown that coalescence of Ag 3 Sn particles is an important ripening process in addition to LSW-like Ostwald ripening. About 10% of the initial Ag 3 Sn particles coalesced during ageing, coalescence occurred uniformly across eutectic regions, and the scaled size distribution histograms contained large particles that can be best fit by the Takajo model of coalescence ripening. Similar macroscopic coarsening kinetics were measured between the surface and bulk Ag 3 Sn particles. Tracking of individual surface particles showed an interplay between the growth/shrinkage and coalescence of Ag 3 Sn.

Wafer-level solid liquid interdiffusion (SLID) bonding, also known as transient liquid-phase bonding, is becoming an increasingly attractive method for industrial usage since it can provide simultaneous formation of electrical interconnections and hermetic encapsulation for microelectromechanical systems. Additionally, SLID is utilized in die-attach bonding for electronic power components. In order to ensure the functionality and reliability of the devices, a fundamental understanding of the formation and evolution of interconnection microstructures, as well as global and local stresses, is of utmost importance. In this work a low-temperature Cu-In-Sn based SLID bonding process is presented. It was discovered that by introducing In to the traditional Cu-Sn metallurgy as an additional alloying element, it is possible to significantly decrease the bonding temperature. Decreasing the bonding temperature results in lower CTE induced global residual stresses. However, there are still several open issues to be studied regarding the effects of dissolved In on the physical properties of the Cu-Sn intermetallics. Additionally, partially metastable microstructures were observed in bonded samples that did not significantly evolve during thermal annealing. This indicates the Cu-In-Sn SLID bond microstructure is extremely stable.

Antimony is attracting interest as an addition to Pb-free solders to improve thermal cycling performance in harsher conditions. Here, we investigate microstructure evolution and failure in harsh accelerated thermal cycling (ATC) of a Sn-3.8Ag-0.9Cu solder with 5.5 wt.% antimony as the major addition in two ball grid array (BGA) packages. SbSn particles are shown to precipitate on both Cu 6 Sn 5 and as cuboids in β-Sn, with reproducible orientation relationships and a good lattice match. Similar to Sn-Ag-Cu solders, the microstructure and damage evolution were generally localised in the β-Sn near the component side where localised β-Sn misorientations and subgrains, accelerated SbSn and Ag 3 Sn particle coarsening, and β-Sn recrystallisation occurred. Cracks grew along the network of recrystallised grain boundaries to failure. The improved ATC performance is mostly attributed to SbSn solid-state precipitation within β-Sn dendrites, which supplements the Ag 3 Sn that formed in a eutectic reaction between β-Sn dendrites, providing populations of strengthening particles in both the dendritic and eutectic β-Sn.

Creep of directionally solidified Sn-3Ag-0.5Cu wt.% (SAC305) samples with near-  orientation along the loading direction and different microstructural lengthscale is investigated under constant load tensile testing and at a range of temperatures. The creep performance improves by refining the microstructure, i.e. the decrease in secondary dendrite arm spacing ( λ 2 ), eutectic intermetallic spacing ( λ e ) and intermetallic compound (IMC) size, indicating a longer creep lifetime, lower creep strain rate, change in activation energy ( Q ) and increase in ductility and homogeneity in macro- and micro-structural deformation of the samples. The dominating creep mechanism is obstacle-controlled dislocation creep at room temperature and transits to lattice-associated vacancy diffusion creep at elevated temperature ( T T M  > 0.7 to 0.75). The deformation mechanisms are investigated using electron backscatter diffraction and strain heterogeneity is identified between β -Sn in dendrites and β -Sn in eutectic regions containing Ag 3 Sn and Cu 6 Sn 5 particles. The size of the recrystallised grains is modulated by the dendritic and eutectic spacings; however, the recrystalised grains in the eutectic regions for coarse-scaled samples (largest λ 2 and λ e ) is only localised next to IMCs without growth in size.

The effects of copper organic solderability preservative (Cu-OSP) and electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) surface finish reflowed on Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) solder have been investigated in detail. Besides conventional cross-sectional microstructure observation, advanced characterization techniques such as synchrotron radiography imaging and synchrotron micro-x-ray fluorescence (µ-XRF) were utilized to elucidate the microstructural evolution in the solder joints during soldering. Additionally, high-speed shear testing was performed to understand the influence of the surface finish on the solder joint strength. The results indicated that the presence of nickel (Ni) from the ENIG surface finish decreased the growth rate but increased the amount of small Cu 6 Sn 5 primary intermetallics, resulting in a slight reduction of the average interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC) thickness in the SAC305/ENIG solder joints. Due to the refined control of the solder joint microstructure, the average high-speed shear strength was higher for as-reflowed SAC305/ENIG versus SAC305/Cu-OSP solder joints. These results indicate a significant influence of the surface finish on SAC305 solder joint microstructure and strength and could provide a basis to improve solder joint strength.

This paper investigates the effect of soldering temperature on solder joint voids and reliability of flip-chip LED chips during reflow soldering. Lead-free solder SAC305 was used as solder paste. The void ratio of the flip-chip LED solder joint at 250°C, 260°C, 270°C, 280°C, and 290°C reflow soldering temperatures was detected by x-ray detector. Shear tests were conducted to evaluate the influence of interfacial reactions on the mechanical reliability of solder joints. The distribution of voids in the shear section was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Next, the photoelectric and thermal properties of FC-LED filament were tested and analyzed. Finally, a high-temperature and high-humidity aging experiment was carried out to test the reliability of the LED filament. The results show that the void ratio of the LED filament soldering joint is the lowest when the soldering temperature is 270°C. The small void ratio of the solder joints results in lower steady-state voltage and junction temperature of the flip-chip LED filament. As the void density in the solder joint decreases, the shear strength of the solder joint increases. At this time, the shear resistance and mechanical reliability are the highest.

The microstructure of Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) solder joints plays an important role in the reliability of electronics, and interlaced twinning has been linked with improved performance. Here, we study the three-dimensional (3-D) shape of interlaced regions in Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) solder balls by combining serial sectioning with electron backscatter diffraction. In solder balls without large Ag 3 Sn plates, we show that the interlaced volume can be reasonably approximated as a hollow double cone with the common 〈100〉 twinning axis as the cone axis, and the 〈110〉 from all three twinned orientations making up the cone sides. This 3-D morphology can explain a range of partially interlaced morphologies in past work on 2-D cross-sections.

Low-temperature and pressureless silver (Ag) sintering was applied to a 1200 V/200 A silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) power module with a Ag-finished silicon nitride active metal-brazed substrate, and the results were evaluated for applicability in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The sintering was performed at 220–240°C, 90 min in vacuum under nitrogen gas conditions; the bonding strength, bonding layer thickness (BLT), void content, and densification of the as-sintered Ag joints were 39 MPa, 71.4 µm, 2%, and 90.5%, respectively. The shear strength, BLT, densification, and microstructure of the Ag-sintered joints were compared before and after the thermal cycling test (− 50–150°C, 1100 cycles, TCT) and high temperature storage test (200°C, 1000 h, HTST). To simultaneously compare the electrical properties of the SiC power module with lead (Pb)-free solder joints, the same SiC MOSFET power module was manufactured using a Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) Pb-free solder. The shear strength and densification after TCT and HTST were 35.5 MPa and 39.7 MPa, as well as 92.8% and 94.8%, respectively. The on-resistance and total switching efficiency of the SiC power module with the Ag-sintered joint were also compared to those of the SAC305 solder joint module, which evinced maximum values of 7.3 mΩ and 10.7 mJ that were superior to those of 8.5 mΩ and 11.3 mJ for the SAC305 solder joint, respectively. Under the same measurement conditions, the maximum generated current and voltage values are lower than those of the solder joint module, so it is envisaged that stable power module operation is realizable for long-term use. The Ag-sintered joint surpassed the SAC305 solder interconnects in terms of the electrical and mechanical reliability of the power module. When a SiC wide band gap device was used, it was discovered that Ag sintering was superior to Pb-free solder interconnects to increase the power conversion efficiency of the power module.