Effect of lanthanum doping on the microstructure of tin-silver solder alloys

Min Pei, Jianmin Qu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, quantitative microstructure studies were performed on multiple length scales to investigate the effect of lanthanum (La) doping on Sn-Ag lead-free solder materials. Factors considered in this paper include doping amount, aging temperature, and aging time. It was found that La doping reduces the grain size significantly, and the reduced grain size remains stable during thermal aging. The size of the Ag 3Sn particles is also greatly reduced by La doping, and the particles coarsen during thermal aging, albeit at a much reduced rate than in the undoped alloy. The rate of particle coarsening can be described by a cubic-root law. Another observation is that the interparticle spacing remains unaffected by the doping. Therefore, higher La doping level leads to higher volume fraction of the eutectic region due to the increased total number of Ag 3Sn particles.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)331-338
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of Electronic Materials
Volume37
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2008

Keywords

  • Lead-free solder alloy
  • Quantitative microstructure study
  • Rare-earth element

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