Mechanical Properties of Cu6Sn5, Cu3Sn, and Ni3Sn4 Intermetallic Compounds Measured by.pdfVIP

Mechanical Properties of Cu6Sn5, Cu3Sn, and Ni3Sn4 Intermetallic Compounds Measured by Nanoindentation Ping-Feng Yang, Yi-Shao Lai, Sheng-Rui Jian2, Jiunn Chen Central Labs, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc., Nantze, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, China 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, China Email: yishao_ Abstract We report in this paper Youngs moduli and hardness of Cu6Sn5, Cu3Sn, and Ni3Sn4 intermetallic compounds (IMCs) measured by nanoindentation. The samples were prepared by annealing Sn-Cu and Sn-Ni diffusion couples. Indentations performed along the directions lateral and perpendicular to the IMC layers show statistically indistinguishable Youngs moduli and hardness for each of the three IMCs, implying that these polycrystalline IMC aggregates are rather isotropic. Nanomechanical responses of the IMCs were shown to depend greatly on the strain rate during loading while independent of the strain rate during unloading. Multiple pop-in events were observed for Cu6Sn5 during loading at a strain rate lower than about 0.1 s-1 to 0.5 s-1. Topographies of the residual impressions were quantitatively measured and the pile-up features were apparent for the three IMCs. 1. Introduction Intermetallic compounds (IMCs) developed on the interface between the solder alloy and its bonding pads play a crucial role in the integrity of the solder joint, and hence the reliability of electronic packages. The Cu6Sn5, Cu3Sn, and Ni3Sn4 binary IMCs are major species in a solder system with Cu or Au/Ni/Cu pad metallizations. Ternary or multi- element IMCs such as (Cul-,,Ni,)6Sn5 and (Nil-y,Cuy)3Sn4 can also be frequently found because of the adoption of various Pb-free solder alloys as well as the ease of inter-substitution of Cu and Ni due to their similar atomic sizes and lattice structures [1]. It has been identified that fracturing around the interfacial IMC layer is the primary failure induced by drop impacts in particular for Pb-