Effects of cooling rate and joint size on Sn grain features in Cu/Sn–3.5Ag/Cu solder joints

In Sn-based micro solder joints for fine pitch flip chip or 3D packaging technologies, the number of Sn grains is always limited and sometimes only one Sn grain exists in a joint, which inevitably causes anisotropy in the performance and reliability of micro interconnection. It is known that the parameters of solder joint structure and reflow process, especially cooling stage, have a great significance for regulating the features of Sn grains after soldering. Hence, in the present paper, the Sn grain features of Cu/Sn–3.5Ag/Cu solder joints with different joint sizes (300 μm, 100 μm and 50 μm) solidified under different cooling rates (1.5 °C/s, 0.5 °C/s and 0.1 °C/s) were studied. Generally, the number of Sn grains decreased as the joint size decreased. When the joint size was 50 μm, the solder joints tended to contain only one or two Sn grains irrespective of the cooling rate. Furthermore, cooling rates greatly affected the number and orientation of Sn grains as well as the growth of large Ag₃Sn intermetallic plates to varying degrees. The formation of Sn grains and Ag₃Sn plates was discussed from the viewpoint of nucleation under different conditions.