Microstructure and Damage Evolution During Thermal Cycling of Sn-Ag-Cu Solders Containing Antimony

Antimony is attracting interest as an addition to Pb-free solders to improve thermal cycling performance in harsher conditions. Here, we investigate microstructure evolution and failure in harsh accelerated thermal cycling (ATC) of a Sn-3.8Ag-0.9Cu solder with 5.5 wt.% antimony as the major addition in two ball grid array (BGA) packages. SbSn particles are shown to precipitate on both Cu6Sn5 and as cuboids in beta-Sn, with reproducible orientation relationships and a good lattice match. Similar to Sn-Ag-Cu solders, the microstructure and damage evolution were generally localised in the beta-Sn near the component side where localised beta-Sn misorientations and subgrains, accelerated SbSn and Ag3Sn particle coarsening, and beta-Sn recrystallisation occurred. Cracks grew along the network of recrystallised grain boundaries to failure. The improved ATC performance is mostly attributed to SbSn solid-state precipitation within beta-Sn dendrites, which supplements the Ag3Sn that formed in a eutectic reaction between beta-Sn dendrites, providing populations of strengthening particles in both the dendritic and eutectic beta-Sn.