Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Formation and Growth of Intermetallics at the Interface Between Lead-Free Solders and Copper Substrates

Published

Author(s)

Thomas A. Siewert, Juan C. Madeni, S X. Liu

Abstract

Intermetalhc formation and growth were studied for the alloys Sn-3.2Ag-0.8Cu, Sn-3.5Ag, Sn-0.7Cu, and Sn-9Zn.,Coupons of solder joints (prepared by melting some of each solder alloy on a copper-plated circuit board) weresubjected to e@-ag'm-g tests for 20, 100, 200, and 500 hours at 70, 100, and 150 'C. Also, the activation energiesfor the formation of each intermetallic compound and the total intermetallic layer for the four copper-solder systemswere determined. The results confirm that the formation of intermetallic layers is controlled by diffusion and thatthe intermetallic layers grow by thermal activation in a parabolic rnanner. The total thickness of the intermetallicconfounds produced at 150'C for 500 hours and the activation energies for the total inteirmetallic layer in the fourcopper-solder systmm were: 14 @m and 0.74 eV/atom for CuJSn-3.2Ag-O.SCu, 13 tim and 0.85 eV/atom for Cii/Sn-3-5Ag, 14 Jim and 0.68 eV/atom for Cu/Su-0.7Cu, and 19 @m and 0.35 eV/atom for Cu/Sn-9Zn.
Proceedings Title
Proceedings of the APEX Conference on Electronics Manufacturing
Conference Dates
April 1, 2003
Conference Title
Conference on Electronics Manufacturing

Keywords

copper, inetermetallics, lead-free solders, silver, solder, tin

Citation

Siewert, T. , Madeni, J. and Liu, S. (2003), Formation and Growth of Intermetallics at the Interface Between Lead-Free Solders and Copper Substrates, Proceedings of the APEX Conference on Electronics Manufacturing, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=851326 (Accessed October 5, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created June 16, 2003, Updated February 17, 2017