Enhancement of structure and properties of Sn58Bi solder by AlN ceramic particles

Abstract

The Sn58Bi composite solders reinforced by AlN ceramic particles was prepared by mechanical mixing method. The melting characteristics, wettability, microstructure, interfacial intermetallic compounds (IMC) layer, and mechanical properties of Sn58Bi-xAlN (x = 0, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07, 0.1, 0.2 wt.%) composite solders were systematically investigated, and influence mechanism of AlN ceramic particles on the Sn58Bi solder was analyzed. The experimental results show that the wetting area and shear strength of Sn58Bi–AlN composite solders present a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. At the AlN ceramic particles content of 0.05 wt.%, the wettability and mechanical properties of the Sn58Bi are enhanced considerably. However, the wettability, mechanical properties of Sn58Bi are reduced when the content of AlN ceramic particles is high. The melting temperature of Sn58Bi-0.07AlN composite solder is increased slightly. The addition of AlN particles can inhibit the growth of interfacial IMC, where the inhibition effect is more obvious for AlN content of 0.05 wt.% and 0.07 wt.%. Therefore, the addition of an appropriate amount of AlN ceramic particles can improve the comprehensive performance of Sn58Bi solder to a certain extent.

Keywords

• AlN ceramic Particles
• Sn58Bi
• IMC
• Microstructure