High temperature indentation behavior of eutectic lead-free solder materials

Abstract

Electronic malfunction caused by thermal stresses is one major problem in modern electronic industries. Therefore, the precise knowledge of the mechanical solder material properties as a function of temperature is required. Nanoindentation and its potential of recording load-displacement curves is a widely-used miniature test for the determination of Young’s modulus and hardness values. Furthermore, such tests can be performed in a temperature range from Room Temperature (RT) up to +500°C by using a Hot-Stage add on. In this paper the lead-free solder alloys Sn91Zn9 and Sn42Bi58, and also copper and fused silica, which is used for the indenter calibration are investigated. The results for quartz and copper agree with the published values in several references. However, the Young’s modulus of Sn42Bi58 as a function of temperature differs from the values presented in the literature. Due to delayed material response in the unloading regime it must be assumed that creep effects lead to an incorrect automatic data evaluation. Investigation and understanding of the creep behavior is part of this paper. For this purpose a visco-elastic material model is used to model the indentation response at elevated temperatures and to determine the corresponding viscous material constants.