A Study on Creep Characteristic of Sn-Ag-Cu Lead Free Solder Materials

Kousaku Ohi1, Takashi Kawakami1, Takahiro Kinoshita1, Tetsuya Kugimiya2, Kenji Hirohata2, Minoru Mukai2 and Toshiyuki Moribayashi3 1 Toyama Prefectural University, 2 Toshiba Co., 3Nihon Genma Mfg. Co. Ltd, 1 5180 Kurokawa, Imizu-Shi, Toyama, 939-0398, Japan Email:t153004@st.pu-toyama.ac.jp, phone:+81-766-56-7500 x.374 Abstract Many studies have been made on the fatigue lives of lead-free solder joints. However, the creep characteristics havent been investigated sufficiently. In this study, creep tests were carried out for lead-free solder materials at room temperature, and data for creep behavior, in particular the steady-state creep rate and rupture time of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu, was obtained. Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu were supplied to creep tests at room temperature. According to our results, numerical models for solder materials were derived based on Nortons law. It was shown that the steadystate creep rate of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu material is much slower than rates of Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials. On the other hand, creep rupture time of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu material was much longer than rupture times of Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials. 1. Introduction Traditional lead-containing solder was used in electronic package. However, EU was prohibition on the import of lead by RoHS(Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and REACH(Regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). Present solder materials do not contain lead. The tension behavior and fatigue behavior of Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder materials are reported. However, creep tests were not a lot of reported and the data was demanded. We therefore study, in this paper, creep behavior of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials and effects on Ag content. The creep studies of solder materials are performed in tension at room temperature. 2. Test specimen and test instrument 2-1 Materials Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials were used on creep tests. The tensile strength of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials are 34MPa, 25MPa and 23MPa and Youngs modulus of them are 46GPa, 25GPa and 54GPa. 2-2 The Creep Test Specimen Lead-free solder material test specimen geometry was shown in Fig.1. The solder material was cast the ingot and it was turned off in order to make test specimen. The creep test specimen was heated treat 0.5 hour at 125 degrees Celsius and was cooled slowly back to room temperature before creep test.

12

20

GL22 23 160 [mm]

Fig.1 Test Specimen

Load Cell

Displacement Sensor

Test Specimen

Actuator Fig.2 Creep Test Specimen and Test Instruments

2-3 Test Instrument Test instruments were shown in Fig.2. Test instruments were servo-hydraulic testing machine, 2 displacement sensors and a data logger. 3. Result 3-1 Creep Curve Creep tests were performed at room temperature. Creep curves of the Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu material were obtained at 9 load levels, and Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu material were obtained at 5 load levels, and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu material were obtained at 6 load levels. Results were shown in Fig.3, 4 and 5. From results, the relationship between stress and steady-state creep rate was derived, and it was listed in table 1.

3-2 Rupture Time Relationship between stress and rupture time was shown in Fig.6. As a result of the linear relationship, the rupture time of an Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu solder material was much longer than rupture times of Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag0.7Cu solder materials, and the rupture time of Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu solder material was almost same Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu. As a result of the creep test, the rupture time of Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder material depended on Ag content. 3-3 Nortons Law Nortons law constitutive relationship was used to describe the steady-state creep rate, as shown (1) when A is a material-dependent constant, n is the stress exponent and is applied stress (5. Equation 1 described a linear relationship in logarithmic coordinates between the Steady-state creep rate and applied stress. Relationship in logarithmic coordinates between the creep strain rate and applied stress were shown in Fig.7, and the liners relationship for 3 kinds of the Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder materials were shown in Fig.7 too. As a result of the linear relationship, A of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu were obtained as 13.7, 11.3 and 12.2 and n of them were obtained as 3.2410-25, 9.5110-20, and 1.0310-20 respectively.

1.0 0.8

21.3MPa 16.1MPa

14.8MPa

13.0MPa

12.1MPa

Strain

15.3MPa

0.6
0.4 0.2 0 0 6 12 18 24

120

240

360

Time t[h] Fig.5 Creep Curves for Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu Solder Material

1.0 22.7MPa 0.8 24.7MPa 21.3MPa

19.6MPa 19.5MPa Not Broken 20.0MPa

Strain

0.6 26.0MPa 0.4 0.2 0 0 2 4 6

Table.1 Stress and Steady-State Creep Rate for Sn3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu Solders Materials Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu [MPa] [s-1] [MPa] [s-1] [MPa] [s-1] 26.0 3.53 19.0 31.4 21.3 165 24.7 3.8 16.3 3.59 16.1 5.33 22.7 2.97 15.0 2.3 15.3 2.08 21.3 0.323 14.3 0.556 14.8 1.64 20.9 0.638 13.1 0.589 13.0 0.417 20.0 0.361 12.1 0.167 19.6 0.0833 19.5 0.0789 19.4 0.111

19.4MPa

20.9MPa 8 10 48 96 144 192 240 288 336 30 Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu

Stress [MPa]

Time t[h] Fig.3 Creep Curves for Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Solder Material

25 20 15 10 0.1 1 10

1.2 1.0

19.0MPa 16.3MPa

15.0MPa

13.1MPa

Strain

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 6

14.3MPa

100

1000

Rupture Time tr[h]

Fig.6 Creep Strength for Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu Solder Materials
48 72 96 120

12

18

24

Time t[h] Fig.4 Creep Curves for Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu Solder Material

4.

Steady-State Creep Rate ln [s-1]

Conclusion (1) The rupture time of Sn-Ag-Cu lead-free solder material depended on Ag content. (2) The material-dependent constants A and stress exponents n were obtained for Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu materials. 5. References (1) Minoru Mukai, et al. Fatigue Life Estimation of Solder Joints in SMT-PGA Package, ASME, Journal of Electronic Packaging, Vol.120, No.2(1998), PP.207-212 (2) Hiroyuki Takahashi, et al. Fatigue Life Evaluation of Sn3.5Ag Solder, Journal of Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging, Vol.3, No.6(2000), pp.528-532 (3) Hiroyuki Takahashi et al. Thermal Fatigue Life Simulation for Sn-Ag-Cu Lead-Free Solder Joints, Journal of Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging, Vol.7, No.4(2004), pp.308-313 (4) Minoru Mukai, et al. Damage Path Simulation of Solder Joints, Transactions of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. A, Vol.72, No.721(2006), pp.1364-1369 (5) Megumi Nagano, et al. Effect of Addition Elements on Creep Properties of the SnAgCu Lead Free Solder, Journal of Japan Institute of Electronics Packaging,Vol.9, No.3(2006), pp.171-179

-3 -4

n=12.2 A=1.0310-20

Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu

-5
-6 -7 -8 1 1.1

n=11.3 A=9.5110-20

n=13.7 A=3.2410-25
1.3 1.4 1.5

Stress ln [MPa]

1.2

Fig.7 Creep Experiment n and Material Constant A for Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.7Cu and Sn-0.3Ag-0.7Cu Solder Materials