Vibration Durability Assessment of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu and Sn37Pb Solders Under Harmonic Excitation

In this paper, the vibration durability of both SAC305 and Sn37Pb interconnects are investigated with narrow-band harmonic vibration tests conducted at the first natural frequency of the test, printed wiring board, using constant-amplitude excitation. A time-domain approach, reported by Upadhyayula and Dasgupta (1998, “Guidelines for Physics-of-Failure Based Accelerated Stress Test,” Proceedings, Reliability and Maintainability Symposium, pp. 345–357), was adapted in this study for the fatigue analysis. The test board consists of daisy-chained components, to facilitate real-time failure monitoring. The response of the test specimens was characterized, and accelerated fatigue tests were conducted at different loading amplitudes to obtain a mix of low-cycle fatigue (LCF) and high-cycle fatigue data points. The SAC305 interconnects were found to have lower fatigue durability than comparable Sn37Pb interconnects, under the narrow-band harmonic excitation levels used in this study. This trend is consistent with most results from broadband vibration tests by Zhou et al. (2006, “Vibration Durability Comparison of Sn37Pb vs. SnAgCu Solders,” Proceedings of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Chicago, IL, Paper No. 13555), Zhou and Dasgupta (2006, “Vibration Durability Investigation for SnPb and SnAgCu Solders With Accelerated Testing and Modeling,” IEEE-TC7 Conference on Accelerated Stress Testing & Reliability, San Francisco, CA), and Woodrow (2005, “JCAA/JG-PP No-Lead Solder Project: Vibration Test,” Boeing Electronics Materials and Processes Technical Report) and from repetitive mechanical shock tests by Zhang et al. (2005, “Isothermal Mechanical Durability of Three Selected Pb-Free Solders: Sn3.9Ag0.6Cu, Sn3.5Ag and Sn0.7Cu,” ASME J. Electron. Packag., 127, pp. 512–522), but counter to findings from quasistatic, LCF, and mechanical cycling studies by Cuddalorepatta and Dasgupta (2005, “Cyclic Mechanical Durability of Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu Pb-Free Solder Alloy,” Proceedings of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Orlando, FL, Paper No. 81171). Failure analysis revealed two competing failure modes, one in the solder and another in the copper trace under the component. Thus solder fatigue properties extracted with the help of finite element simulation of the test article should be treated as lower-bound estimates of the actual fatigue curves.