Investigation of joule heating effect in various stages of failure in flip-chip solder joints under accelerated electromigration

The Joule heating effect at various stages of electromigration of flip-chip Sn3.5Ag solder joints was investigated under a current of 0.5 Amp at 100°C. During various stages of electromigration, voids may form and propagate and Joule heating effect may vary at different void sizes. To verify the void nucleation and propagation on Joule heating effect during electromigration process, the solder bump was stressed for different lengths of time and then examined by Kelvin bump probes and infrared microscopy. We found that voids started to form at approximately 1.2 times of the initial bump resistance. Then the voids propagated when the bump resistance increased. In addition, the temperature of the solder joints is also increased with the bump resistance and the increase of current stressing time. In the last stage, the temperature of the solder bump increased rapidly due to the bump resistance increased and local Joule heating effect.