Pb-free Solder: SAC105 vs SAC305 Drop-Test Reliability Data Comparison

With Pb-free RoHS compliance already in place and with the limited reliability data available for the Pb-free solder, it is becoming very difficult for industry to find a suitable replacement for the Sn-Pb system. There is an increasing market for mobile and hand held applications, but with limited data on the reliability tests like drop test it is becoming a inventory fiasco for the companies to deal with different Pb-free solders to cater a particular application. This paper is an effort to gather experimental data (drop test) for the two popular Pb-free solders SAC 105 and SAC 305 and compare its failure mechanism and co-relate it with a numerical simulation. It concludes with a recommendation for a common Pb-free solder as a plausible replacement to the existing Sn-Pb system for hand held and mobile applications.