Effect of thermo-mechanically induced microstructural coarsening on the evolution of creep response of SnAg-based microelectronic solders

The creep response of solder joints in a microelectronic package, which are subjected to aggressive thermo-mechanical cycling (TMC) during service, often limits the reliability of the entire package. Furthermore, during TMC, the microstructures of the new lead-free solders (Sn–Ag and Sn–Ag–Cu) can undergo significant in situ strain-enhanced coarsening, resulting in in-service evolution of the creep behavior. In this paper, the coarsening kinetics of Ag3Sn particles in SnAg-based solder are studied, and the results are correlated with impression creep data from individual microelectronic solder balls subjected to thermal aging treatments. Coarsening influences creep behavior in two ways. At low stresses, the creep rate increases proportionately with precipitate size. At high stresses, precipitate coarsening influences creep response by altering the threshold stress for particle-limited creep. Based on these observations, a microstructurally adaptive creep model for solder interconnects undergoing in situ coarsening is presented.