Low-cost manufacturing in the electronics industry is becoming more demanding, particularly in the production of consumer electronics. Such manufacturing processes require reliable and low-cost lead-free solders. Among the low temperature lead-free solders, eutectic Sn-Bi solder has attracted a great deal of interest since it offers good reliability comparable to that of Sn-Pb solders. In this paper, the shear strength of eutectic 42Sn-58Bi (wt.%) lead-free solder was studied using combinations of environmental tests including thermal aging at 100 °C, salt spray test, and a sequential combination of these tests. Microstructural studies on samples were performed at different time intervals of testing. To study the effect of salt spray and thermal aging on the mechanical reliability, shear testing was performed on the samples. Failure analysis including fractography on samples was conducted at different time intervals using a scanning electron microscope. Considerable corrosion was observed after the salt spray test. This was found to have a significant effect on the shear strength of the solder joints. Additionally, thermal aging was found to cause coarsening and to increase the thickness of intermetallic layers. This was also found to adversely affect the shear strength. The combination test was found to have the most significant effect, as the lowest shear strengths were seen after this testing.
