Reliability Analysis of Solder Joints on Rigid-Flexible PCB for MEMS Pressure Sensors Under Combined Temperature Cycle and Vibration Loads with Continuously Monitored Electrical Signals

Author(s):  
Xiaoping Wang ◽  
Jun Yang ◽  
Xiaogang Liu ◽  
Panpan Zheng ◽  
Qinglin Song ◽  
...  

Abstract The reliability of lead-free solder joints on flexible PCB has created significant new challenges in the industry, especially in automotive electronics, and possibly for future wearable electronics.In this paper, the submodeling technique was used to construct the finite element model of the rigid-flexible printed circuit board (rigid-flexible PCB) for a MEMS pressure sensor subjected to combined temperature cycle and random vibration loadings. During all the experiments, the electrical signals of each specimen were continuously monitored using an event detector. One advantage of this method is that any individual soldering interconnect failure will result in the diagnostic signal of the circuit, which could be detected in real time. The influence of vibration frequency and acceleration on the vibration fatigue life of solid joints was investigated.The research results are helpful to effectively characterize the performance of the MEMS sensors under combine thermal cycling test and vibration test. Two kinds of land shapes and two kinds of PCB assemblies were selected. The solder joint is sliced and the crack on the cross section of solder joint was observed. Results of finite element modeling analysis were consistent with the experimental results. Two design parameters have been identified in our research as being important to soldering usage in automotive environments: pad type (teardrop vs. non-teardrop) and pad size (big vs. small, matching size for Cu-wire and pad). Experimental results also showed that the solder joint with big land shape presented a relatively good thermal fatigue resistance.

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lei Shi ◽  
Lin Chen ◽  
David Wei Zhang ◽  
Evan Liu ◽  
Qiang Liu ◽  
...  

Due to low cost and good electrical performance, wafer-level chip scale packaging (WLCSP) has gained more attention in both industry and academia. However, because the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatches between silicon and organic printed circuit board (PCB), WLCSP technology still faces reliability challenges, such as the solder joint fragile life issue. In this paper, a new WLCSP design (WLCSP-PN) is proposed, based on the structure of WLCSP with Cu posts (WLCSP-P), to release the stress on the solder joints. In the new design, there is a space between the Cu post and the polymer which permits NiSn coating on the post sidewall. The overcoating enhances the solder–post interface where cracks were initiated and enlarges the intermetallic compounds (IMC) joint area to enhance the adhesion strength. Design of experiment (DOE) with the Taguchi method is adopted to obtain the sensitivity information of design parameters of the new design by the three-dimensional (3D) finite element model (FEM), leading to the optimized configuration. The finite element analysis results demonstrate that compared to WLCSP-P, the proposed WLCSP-PN reduces the package displacement, equivalent stress, and plastic strain energy density and thus improves the fatigue life of solder joints.


2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter K. Bernasko ◽  
Sabuj Mallik ◽  
G. Takyi

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of intermetallic compound (IMC) layer thickness on the shear strength of surface-mount component 1206 chip resistor solder joints. Design/methodology/approach – To evaluate the shear strength and IMC thickness of the 1206 chip resistor solder joints, the test vehicles were conventionally reflowed for 480 seconds at a peak temperature of 240°C at different isothermal ageing times of 100, 200 and 300 hours. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the reflowed and aged 1206 chip resistor solder joints. The shear strength of the solder joints aged at 100, 200 and 300 hours was measured using a shear tester (Dage-4000PXY bond tester). Findings – It was found that the growth of IMC layer thickness increases as the ageing time increases at a constant temperature of 175°C, which resulted in a reduction of solder joint strength due to its brittle nature. It was also found that the shear strength of the reflowed 1206 chip resistor solder joint was higher than the aged joints. Moreover, it was revealed that the shear strength of the 1206 resistor solder joints aged at 100, 200 and 300 hours was influenced by the ageing reaction times. The results also indicate that an increase in ageing time and temperature does not have much influence on the formation and growth of Kirkendall voids. Research limitations/implications – A proper correlation between shear strength and fracture mode is required. Practical implications – The IMC thickness can be used to predict the shear strength of the component/printed circuit board pad solder joint. Originality/value – The shear strength of the 1206 chip resistor solder joint is a function of ageing time and temperature (°C). Therefore, it is vital to consider the shear strength of the surface-mount chip component in high-temperature electronics.


Author(s):  
Leila J. Ladani ◽  
Omar Rodriguez

3-dimensional integrated circuit (3D IC) is a promising technology in today’s IC packaging industry. Since the technology is in infancy stages, many aspects of this technology are still under heavy investigation. Reliability of through silicon via (TSV) interconnects and interlayer bonding between the silicon layers are issues that become more complicated in 3D ICs due to complexity of the architecture and miniaturized interconnects. Optimizing design of these devices is essential in order to avoid short fatigue life of interconnects. This manuscript addresses the impact of design parameters such as die thickness, TSV diameter, TSV pitch, underfill thickness and underfill properties on thermo-mechanical durability of Direct Chip Attach (DCA) solder joints and TSV interconnects used in a 3D IC packages. A design was proposed where DCA is used to connect 4 layers of ICs and TSVs are used to connect the active layer of the dies to the second silicon layer. Solder joints, as small as 50-micron diameter, were used to attach silicon layers. A numerical experiment is designed to vary design parameters at 3 levels using L9 ortagonal array. A 3-dimensional model of the package was built and model was solved under an accelerated temperature cycle loading. Solder is considered as visco-plastic material and copper interconnects are assumed to follow bilinear isotropic hardening behavior. Two continuum damage models, energy partitioning and Coffin-Manson models, were used to assess the number of cycles to failure for solder joints and TSV copper interconnects respectively. Minitab software was used to analyze the result of experiment. The most influential factors on durability of solder interconnect are found to be underfill properties and height. However, the most influential factor on TSV durability is found to be TSV diameter. A non-linear response was observed for TSV pitch and diameter indicating that the optimum level may be in the range selected.


1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 472-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Sauber ◽  
J. Seyyedi

A power-law type creep equation has been added to finite element models to calculate solder joint response to time, temperature, and stress level. The ability of the models to predict solder joint behavior was verified by running a series of creep tests. The models were then solved to determine the solder joint creep strains which occur during thermal cycling. These creep strains were used to predict the degradation of pull strength resulting from thermal cycling. More than 8,600 solder joints were thermally cycled and then individually pull tested to verify the accuracy of the method.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Wu

Purpose This paper aims to inspect the defects of solder joints of printed circuit board in real-time production line, simple computing and high accuracy are primary consideration factors for feature extraction and classification algorithm. Design/methodology/approach In this study, the author presents an ensemble method for the classification of solder joint defects. The new method is based on extracting the color and geometry features after solder image acquisition and using decision trees to guarantee the algorithm’s running executive efficiency. To improve algorithm accuracy, the author proposes an ensemble method of random forest which combined several trees for the classification of solder joints. Findings The proposed method has been tested using 280 samples of solder joints, including good and various defect types, for experiments. The results show that the proposed method has a high accuracy. Originality/value The author extracted the color and geometry features and used decision trees to guarantee the algorithm's running executive efficiency. To improve the algorithm accuracy, the author proposes using an ensemble method of random forest which combined several trees for the classification of solder joints. The results show that the proposed method has a high accuracy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imtiaz Ahmed Shaik

Currently in the electronics industry there is a desire to increase component reliability. Fatigue failure in solder joints is an important design consideration for electronic packaging. In through-hole components, fatigue failure of leads has been observed to antecede fatigue failure of solder joints. The main objective of the study for a solder joint in a plated-through-hole bearing the pin during the temperature cycle was to ascertain the thermo mechanical behavior and the dominant deformation mode. The Digital Speckle Correlation (DSC) technique, which is a computer vision technique, was applied for the measurement of solder joint deforamtion for a prescribed outlined temperature and time. The dimensions for the area of the solder joint under study were 21 by 21 um, located at the centre of the hole. And computation of averaged shear strains at 6 data points for this area was done. R Darveaux's constitutive model was applied for the data analysis such as the solder joint yields stress with respect to the time and temperature. On achieving the stress solution, the measured total strains were partitioned into elastic, plastic and creep terms separately and hence the creep strain was evaluated. From the analysis, it was found that the dominant deformation mode was shear deformation due to mismatch of coefficient of thermal expansion between pin and copper plating material of through-hole under thermal loading. And the dominant deformation mechanism was creep strain while stress started to relax at the end of ramp up and continued throughout the test and creep strain rate decreased during high temperature dwell. In Addition, the elastic strain was dominating during the initial stage of thermal cycle but later it was neglibible when compared to creep strain.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20
Author(s):  
Ephraim Suhir ◽  
Sung Yi ◽  
Jennie S. Hwang ◽  
Reza Ghaffarian

Abstract The “head-in-pillow” (HnP) defects in lead-free solder joint interconnections of Integrated Circuit (IC) packages with conventional (small) standoff heights of the solder joints, and particularly in packages with fine pitches, are attributed by many electronic material scientists to the three major causes: attributes of the manufacturing process, solder material properties, and design-related issues. The latter are thought to be caused primarily by elevated stresses in the solder material, as well as by the excessive warpage of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB)-package assembly and particularly by the differences in the thermally induced curvatures of the PCB and the package. In this analysis, the stress and warpage issue is addressed using an analytical predictive stress model. The model is a modification and an extension of the model developed back in 1980s by the first author. It is assumed that it is the difference in the postfabrication deflections of the PCB-package assembly that is the root cause of the solder material failures and particularly and perhaps the HnP defects. The calculated data based on the developed stress model suggest that the replacement of the conventional ball grid array (BGA) designs with designs with elevated standoff heights of the solder joints could result in significant stress and warpage relief and, hopefully, in a lower propensity of the IC package to HnP defects as well. The general concepts are illustrated by a numerical example, in which the responses to the change in temperature of a conventional design, referred to as BGA, and a design with solder joints with elevated standoff heights, referred to as column grid array (CGA), are compared. The computed data indicated that the effective stress in the solder material was relieved by about 40% and the difference between the maximum deflections of the PCB and the package was reduced by about 60%, when the BGA design was replaced by a CGA system. Although no definite proof that the use of solder joints with elevated standoff heights will lessen the package propensity to the HnP defects is provided, the authors nonetheless think that there is a reason to believe that the application of solder joints with elevated standoff heights could result in a substantial improvement in the general IC package performance, including, perhaps, its propensity to HnP defects.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imtiaz Ahmed Shaik

Currently in the electronics industry there is a desire to increase component reliability. Fatigue failure in solder joints is an important design consideration for electronic packaging. In through-hole components, fatigue failure of leads has been observed to antecede fatigue failure of solder joints. The main objective of the study for a solder joint in a plated-through-hole bearing the pin during the temperature cycle was to ascertain the thermo mechanical behavior and the dominant deformation mode. The Digital Speckle Correlation (DSC) technique, which is a computer vision technique, was applied for the measurement of solder joint deforamtion for a prescribed outlined temperature and time. The dimensions for the area of the solder joint under study were 21 by 21 um, located at the centre of the hole. And computation of averaged shear strains at 6 data points for this area was done. R Darveaux's constitutive model was applied for the data analysis such as the solder joint yields stress with respect to the time and temperature. On achieving the stress solution, the measured total strains were partitioned into elastic, plastic and creep terms separately and hence the creep strain was evaluated. From the analysis, it was found that the dominant deformation mode was shear deformation due to mismatch of coefficient of thermal expansion between pin and copper plating material of through-hole under thermal loading. And the dominant deformation mechanism was creep strain while stress started to relax at the end of ramp up and continued throughout the test and creep strain rate decreased during high temperature dwell. In Addition, the elastic strain was dominating during the initial stage of thermal cycle but later it was neglibible when compared to creep strain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Chen ◽  
Xinzhan Cui ◽  
Yaofeng Wu ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Fengshun Wu

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of fullerene (FNS) reinforcements on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 96.5Sn3Ag0.5Cu (SAC305) lead-free solder joints under isothermal ageing and electrical-migration (EM) stressing. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, SAC305 solder alloy doped with 0.1 Wt.% FNS was prepared via the powder metallurgy method. A sandwich-like sample and a U-shaped sample were designed and prepared to conduct an isothermal ageing test and an EM test. The isothermal ageing test was implemented under vacuum atmosphere at 150°C, whereas the EM experiment was carried out with a current density of 1.5 × 104 A/cm2. The microstructural and mechanical evolutions of both plain and composite solder joints after thermal ageing and EM stressing were comparatively studied. Findings A growth of Ag3Sn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) in solder matrix and Cu-Sn interfacial IMCs in composite solder joints was notably suppressed under isothermal ageing condition, whereas the hardness and shear strength of composite solder joints significantly outperformed those of non-reinforced solder joints throughout the ageing period. The EM experimental results showed that for the SAC305 solder, the interfacial IMCs formulated a protrusion at the anode after 360 h of EM stressing, whereas the surface of the composite solder joint was relatively smooth. During the stressing period, the interfacial IMC on the anode side of the plain SAC305 solder showed a continuous increasing trend, whereas the IMC at the cathode presented a decreasing trend for its thickness as the stressing time increased; after 360 h of stressing, some cracks and voids had formed on the cathode side. For the SAC305/FNS composite solder, a continuous increase in the thickness of the interfacial IMC was found on both the anode and cathode sides; the growth rate of the interfacial IMC at the anode was higher than that at the cathode. The nanoindentation results showed that the hardness of the SAC305 solder joint presented a gradient distribution after EM stressing, whereas the hardness data showed a relatively homogeneous distribution in the SAC305/FNS solder joint. Originality/value The experimental results showed that the FNS reinforcement could effectively mitigate the failure risk in solder joints under isothermal ageing and high-current stressing. Specifically, the FNS particles in solder joints can work as a barrier to suppress the diffusion and migration of Sn and Cu atoms. In addition, the nanoidentation results also indicated that the addition of the FNS reinforcement was very helpful in maintaining the mechanical stability of the solder joint. These findings have provided a theoretical and experimental basis for the practical application of this novel composite solder with high-current densities.


2001 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cemal Basaran ◽  
Rumpa Chandaroy

Due to the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) mismatch between the bonded layers, the solder joint experiences cycling shear strain, which leads to short cycle fatigue. When semiconductor devices are used in a vibrating environment, additional strains shorten the fatigue life of a solder joint. Reliability of these joints in new packages is determined by laboratory tests. In order to use the FEM to replace these expensive reliability tests a unified constitutive model for Pb40/Sn60 solder joints has been developed and implemented in a thermo-viscoplastic-dynamic finite element procedure. The model incorporates thermal-elastic-viscoplastic and damage capabilities in a unified manner. The constitutive model has been verified extensively against laboratory test data. The finite element procedure was used for coupled thermo-viscoplastic-dynamic analyses for fatigue life predictions. The results indicate that using Miner’s rule to calculate accumulative damage by means of two separate analyses, namely dynamic and thermo-mechanical, significantly underestimates the accumulative total damage. It is also shown that a simultaneous application of thermal and dynamic loads significantly shortens the fatigue life of the solder joint. In the microelectronic packaging industry it is common practice to ignore the contribution of vibrations to short cycle fatigue life predictions. The results of this study indicate that damage induced in the solder joints by vibrations have to be included in fatigue life predictions to accurately estimate their reliability.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document