Impact of Electrical Current on the Long-Term Reliability of Fine-Pitch Ball Grid Array Packages with Sn-Ag-Cu Solder Interconnects

The interaction between electrical current and the long-term reliability of fine-pitch ball grid array packages with Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (wt.%) solder ball interconnects is investigated. In this study, 0.4-mm fine-pitch packages with 300-μm-diameter Sn-Ag-Cu solder balls are used. Electrical current was applied under various conditions to two different package substrate surface finishes to compare the effects of chemically unmixed and mixed joint structures: a Cu/SAC305/Cu structure and a NiAu/SAC305/Cu structure, respectively. To study the thermal impact on the thermal fatigue performance and long-term reliability, the samples were thermally cycled from 0°C to 100°C with and without current stressing. Based on Weibull plots, the characteristic lifetime was degraded for the mixed joint structure, but little degradation was observed for the unmixed joint structure. The microstructure evolution was observed during constant current stressing and current stressing during thermal cycling. Accelerated intermetallic precipitation depletion at the package-side interface was observed in NiAu/SAC305/Cu structures due to current stressing, which was identified as the potential reason for the degradation in the thermal cycling performance.