| Summary: | The dominant materials used for solders in electronic assemblies over the past 60 years have been Pb-Sn alloys. Increasing pressure from environmental and health authorities has stimulated the development of various Pb-free solders. Two of the most promising replacements are eutectic Sn-Cu and Sn-Ag-Cu alloys that are produced primarily by electrodeposition. During soldering and solid state aging (storage or in service of the electronic assemblies), interactions take place at the solder/substrate metal interface and form intermetallic compounds (IMCs) which are crucial for the reliability of the solder joints.
Simple and "green" Sn-citrate and Sn-Cu-citrate solutions have been developed and optimized to electrodeposit eutectic and near eutectic Sn-Cu solder films. Sn-citrate suspensions with Cu particles and Sn-Cu-citrate suspensions with Ag nano-particles have also been developed and optimized to allow for electrochemical composite deposition of eutectic and near eutectic Sn-Cu and Sn-Ag-Cu solder films. Different plating and post-plating conditions, including solution concentration, current density, agitation, additives, and aging, have been investigated by evaluating their effects on plating rate, deposit composition and microstructure.
Tri-ammonium citrate is used as the only complexing agent for Sn, Sn-Cu, and Sn-Ag-Cu deposition. Speciation diagram calculations, reduction potential calculations, and polarization studies are conducted to study Sn-citrate solution chemistry and the kinetics of Sn electrodeposition. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis is used to identify the precipitates formed in Sn-citrate solutions at low pH. Current-controlled and potential-controlled electrochemical techniques, nucleation modeling, and surface morphology characterization techniques are applied to study the nucleation and film growth mechanism of Sn and Sn-Cu electrodeposition from Sn-citrate and Sn-Cu-citrate solutions.
Reflow and aging tests for deposited Sn-Cu and Sn-Ag-Cu solder films on Cu and Ni substrates are performed to study the interactions between the solder and the substrate and the formation and growth of IMCs at the solder/substrate interface, by characterizing the microstructure of the IMCs and calculating diffusion coefficients. === Materials Engineering
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