Reliability of lead-free solder alloys

A critical review of data on microstructure and creep process activation energy values for a number of lead-free solder alloys like Sn-Ag; Sn-Bi; Sn-In was conducted. The review revealed a scatter in experimental data, which could not be explained by the dislocation creep mechanism only, even after the published data was corrected for Young's modulus temperature dependence. An analysis of the data implies that possible origin of such a scatter is nucleation, accumulation and further growth of such internal defects as pores and microcracks during creep. It is shown that these processes may affect the measured steady-state creep rates, and may be one of the major reasons for the observed scatter in experimental data, and, therefore, must be taken into consideration in lead-free solder alloys' creep studies.