Electrochemical migration behaviors of lead-free 64Sn-35Bi-1Ag solder on FR-4 PCB board plated with Cu

Electrochemical migration (ECM) characteristic is a new reliability failure. A parallel surfacial electrode system coupling with scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) technologies is designed to research ECM behavior of 64Sn-35Bi-1Ag (SBA) solder in 3.5 g/L NaCl solution and compare to that of Sn37Pb and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC) solders. Results show that SBA solder is more susceptible to ECM failure than Sn37Pb solder, which is more difficult than SAC solder. The affected factors of ECM are given as follows: the solder compositions, the loaded electric field, ECM time, etc. The electrochemical reaction mechanism of ECM process is achieved. EDAX and XRD analyses show that the main contents on dendrites of SBA solder after ECM test are Sn, hardly any Bi, a little Ag, which illustrates that the order of ion migration capacity is shown as follows: Sn>Ag>Bi.