Interfacial reactions and compound formation of Sn-Ag-Cu solders by mechanical alloying on electroless Ni-P/Cu under bump metallization

Electroless Ni-P under bump metallization (UBM) has been widely used in electronic interconnections due to the good diffusion barrier between Cu and solder. In this study, the mechanical alloying (MA) process was applied to produce the SnAgCu lead-free solder pastes. Solder joints after annealing at 240°C for 15 min were employed to investigate the evolution of interfacial reaction between electroless Ni-P/Cu UBM and SnAgCu solder with various Cu concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 1.0 wt.%. After detailed quantitative analysis with an electron probe microanalyzer, the effect of Cu content on the formation of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) at SnAgCu solder/electroless Ni-P interface was evaluated. When the Cu concentration in the solder was 0.2 wt.%, only one (Ni, Cu)3Sn4 layer was observed at the solder/electroless Ni-P interface. As the Cu content increased to 0.5 wt.%, (Cu, Ni)6Sn5 formed along with (Ni, Cu)3Sn4. However, only one (Cu, Ni)6Sn5 layer was revealed, if the Cu content was up to 1 wt.%. With the aid of microstructure evolution, quantitative analysis, and elemental distribution by x-ray color mapping, the presence of the Ni-Sn-P phase and P-rich layer was evidenced.