Stereological properties of the intermetallic formed at the nickel-liquid tin interface

The profile roughness and the profile configuration parameters, two stereological properties developed for fracture surfaces, are employed to characterize the evolution of the intermetallic-liquid tin interface present during the soldering process between nickel and tin. It is shown that they provide a useful description of the intermetallic-liquid tin interface. A geometric model is proposed for this interface and found to be valid for the whole range of soldering time and geometric scaling.