Electromigration studies on Sn(Cu) alloy lines

The Cu alloying effect in the Sn(Cu) solder line has been studied. The Sn0.7Cu solder line has the most serious electromigration (EM) damage compared to pure Sn and Sn3.0Cu solder lines. The dominant factor for the fast EM rate in Sn0.7Cu could be attributed to the relatively small grain size and the low critical stress, i.e., the yielding stress of the Sn0.7Cu solder line. Also, we found that the shortest Sn0.7Cu solder line, 250 µm, has the most serious EM damage among three solder lines of different lengths. The back stress induced by EM might not play a significant role on the EM test of long solder lines. A new failure mode of EM test was observed; EM under an external tensile stress. The external stress is superimposed on the stress profile induced by EM. As a result, the hillock formation was retarded at the anode side, and void formation was enhanced at the cathode.