Technical Library | 2015-02-19 16:54:34.0
Pad cratering is an important failure mode besides crack of solder joint as it’ll pass the regular test but have impact on the long term reliability of the product. A new pin pull test method with solder ball attached and positioning the test board at an angle of 30º is employed to study the strength of pad cratering. This new method clearly reveals the failure mechanism. And a proper way to interpret the finite element analysis (FEA) result is discussed. Impact of pad dimension, width and angle of copper trace on the strength is included. Some findings not included in previous research could help to guide the design for better performance
Technical Library | 2015-08-13 15:52:40.0
Pad cratering has become more prevalent with the switch to lead free solders and lead free compatible laminates. This mainly is due to the use of higher reflow temperature, stiffer Pb-free solder alloys, and the more brittle Pb-free compatible laminates. However, pad cratering is difficult to detect by monitoring electric resistance since pad cratering initiates before an electrical failure occurs. Several methods have been developed to evaluate laminate materials' resistance to pad cratering. Pad-solder level tests include ball shear, ball pull and pin pull. The detailed methods for ball shear, ball pull, and pin pull testing are documented in an industry standard IPC-9708. Bansal, et al. proposed to use acoustic emission (AE) sensors to detect pad cratering during four-point bend test. Currently there is an industry-working group working on test guidelines for acoustic emission measurement during mechanical testing.
Technical Library | 2009-11-05 11:17:32.0
Head-in-pillow (HiP), also known as ball-and-socket, is a solder joint defect where the solder paste deposit wets the pad, but does not fully wet the ball. This results in a solder joint with enough of a connection to have electrical integrity, but lacking sufficient mechanical strength. Due to the lack of solder joint strength, these components may fail with very little mechanical or thermal stress. This potentially costly defect is not usually detected in functional testing, and only shows up as a failure in the field after the assembly has been exposed to some physical or thermal stress.
Technical Library | 2013-12-27 10:39:21.0
The head-in-pillow defect has become a relatively common failure mode in the industry since the implementation of Pb-free technologies, generating much concern. A head-in-pillow defect is the incomplete wetting of the entire solder joint of a Ball-Grid Array (BGA), Chip-Scale Package (CSP), or even a Package-On-Package (PoP) and is characterized as a process anomaly, where the solder paste and BGA ball both reflow but do not coalesce. When looking at a cross-section, it actually looks like a head has pressed into a soft pillow. There are two main sources of head-in-pillow defects: poor wetting and PWB or package warpage. Poor wetting can result from a variety of sources, such as solder ball oxidation, an inappropriate thermal reflow profile or poor fluxing action. This paper addresses the three sources or contributing issues (supply, process & material) of the head-in-pillow defects. It will thoroughly review these three issues and how they relate to result in head-in pillow defects. In addition, a head-in-pillow elimination plan will be presented with real life examples will be to illustrate these head-in-pillow solutions.
Technical Library | 2014-10-30 01:48:43.0
The ultimate life of a microelectronics component is often limited by failure of a solder joint due to crack growth through the laminate under a contact pad (cratering), through the intermetallic bond to the pad, or through the solder itself. Whatever the failure mode proper assessments or even relative comparisons of life in service are not possible based on accelerated testing with fixed amplitudes, or random vibration testing, alone. Effects of thermal cycling enhanced precipitate coarsening on the deformation properties can be accounted for by microstructurally adaptive constitutive relations, but separate effects on the rate of recrystallization lead to a break-down in common damage accumulation laws such as Miner's rule. Isothermal cycling of individual solder joints revealed additional effects of amplitude variations on the deformation properties that cannot currently be accounted for directly. We propose a practical modification to Miner's rule for solder failure to circumvent this problem. Testing of individual solder pads, eliminating effects of the solder properties, still showed variations in cycling amplitude to systematically reduce subsequent acceleration factors for solder pad cratering. General trends, anticipated consequences and remaining research needs are discussed
Technical Library | 2015-01-08 17:26:59.0
Regardless of the accelerating trend for design and conversion to Pb-free manufacturing, many high reliability electronic equipment producers continue to manufacture and support tin-lead (SnPb) electronic products. Certain high reliability electronic products from the telecommunication, military, and medical sectors manufacture using SnPb solder assembly and remain in compliance with the RoHS Directive (restriction on certain hazardous substances) by invoking the European Union Pb-in-solder exemption. Sustaining SnPb manufacturing has become more challenging because the global component supply chain is converting rapidly to Pb-free offerings and has a decreasing motivation to continue producing SnPb product for the low-volume, high reliability end users. Availability of critical, larger SnPb BGA components is a growing concern
Technical Library | 2020-10-27 02:07:31.0
For companies that choose to take the Pb-free exemption under the European Union's RoHS Directive and continue to manufacture tin-lead (Sn-Pb) electronic products, there is a growing concern about the lack of Sn-Pb ball grid array (BGA) components. Many companies are compelled to use the Pb-free Sn-Ag-Cu (SAC) BGA components in a Sn-Pb process, for which the assembly process and solder joint reliability have not yet been fully characterized. A careful experimental investigation was undertaken to evaluate the reliability of solder joints of SAC BGA components formed using Sn-Pb solder paste. This evaluation specifically looked at the impact of package size, solder ball volume, printed circuit board (PCB) surface finish, time above liquidus and peak temperature on reliability. Four different BGA package sizes (ranging from 8 to 45 mm2) were selected with ball-to-ball pitch size ranging from 0.5mm to 1.27mm. Two different PCB finishes were used: electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) and organic solderability preservative (OSP) on copper. Four different profiles were developed with the maximum peak temperatures of 210oC and 215oC and time above liquidus ranging from 60 to 120 seconds using Sn-Pb paste. One profile was generated for a lead-free control. A total of 60 boards were assembled. Some of the boards were subjected to an as assembled analysis while others were subjected to an accelerated thermal cycling (ATC) test in the temperature range of -40oC to 125oC for a maximum of 3500 cycles in accordance with IPC 9701A standard. Weibull plots were created and failure analysis performed. Analysis of as-assembled solder joints revealed that for a time above liquidus of 120 seconds and below, the degree of mixing between the BGA SAC ball alloy and the Sn-Pb solder paste was less than 100 percent for packages with a ball pitch of 0.8mm or greater. Depending on package size, the peak reflow temperature was observed to have a significant impact on the solder joint microstructural homogeneity. The influence of reflow process parameters on solder joint reliability was clearly manifested in the Weibull plots. This paper provides a discussion of the impact of various profiles' characteristics on the extent of mixing between SAC and Sn-Pb solder alloys and the associated thermal cyclic fatigue performance.
Technical Library | 2015-07-01 16:51:43.0
Aerospace and military companies continue to exercise RoHS exemptions and to intensively research the long term attachment reliability of RoHS compliant solders. Their products require higher vibration, drop/shock performance, and combined-environment reliability than the conventional SAC305 alloy provides. The NASA-DoD Lead-Free Electronics Project confirmed that pad cratering is one of the dominant failure modes that occur in various board level reliability tests, especially under dynamic loading. One possible route to improvement of the mechanical and thermo-mechanical properties of solder joints is the use of Pb-free solders with lower process temperatures. Lower temperatures help reduce the possibility of damaging the boards and components, and also may allow for the use of lower Tg board materials which are less prone to pad cratering defects. There are several Sn-Ag-Bi and Sn-Ag-Cu-Bi alloys which melt about 10°C lower than SAC305. The bismuth in these solder compositions not only reduces the melting temperature, but also improves thermo-mechanical behavior. An additional benefit of using Bi-containing solder alloys is the possibility to reduce the propensity to whisker growth
Technical Library | 2016-10-20 18:13:34.0
Pad cratering failure has emerged due to the transition from traditional SnPb to SnAgCu alloys in soldering of printed circuit assemblies. Pb-free-compatible laminate materials in the printed circuit board tend to fracture under ball grid array pads when subjected to high strain mechanical loads. In this study, two Pb-free-compatible laminates were tested, plus one dicycure non-Pb-free-compatible as control. One set of these samples were as-received and another was subjected to five reflows. It is assumed that mechanical properties of different materials have an influence on the susceptibility of laminates to fracture. However, the pad cratering phenomenon occurs at the layer of resin between the exterior copper and the first glass in the weave. Bulk mechanical properties have not been a good indicator of pad crater susceptibility. In this study, mechanical characterization of hardness and Young’s modulus was carried out in the critical area where pad cratering occurs using nano-indentation at the surface and in a cross-section. The measurements show higher modulus and hardness in the Pb-free compatible laminates than in the dicy-cured laminate. Few changes are seen after reflow – which is known to have an effect -- indicating that these properties do not provide a complete prediction. Measurements of the copper pad showed significant material property changes after reflow.
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