Lead-Free Soldering

Lead-Free Soldering

Edited by

Jasbir Bath
Solectron Corporation

13
Jasbir Bath
Solectron Corporation
637 Gibraltar Court, Building 1
Milpitas, CA 95035
USA

Library of Congress Control Number: 2007920042

ISBN 978-0-387-32466-1 e-ISBN 978-0-387-68422-2

Printed on acid-free paper.

© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written
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Preface

The past few years have seen major developments in soldering materials
and processes for electronics assembly manufacture due to the movement
from tin-lead to lead-free soldering. The removal of lead from electronics
solders due to environmental considerations first developed with proposed
US legislation in the early 1990s. At that time, the alternatives had not
been fully explored, so a ban on the use of lead in electronic solders was
put on hold. However the seed was sown for development with various
projects initiated during the 1990s in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.
Based on government pressures, Japan OEMs began to move to lead-free
solder products from 1998 and this, combined with the European Union
ROHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) legislation enacted in 2006,
drove the global manufacture of electronics consumer products with lead-
free solders. From 1998 to the present, the development of lead-free solder
materials and processes has progressed to such an extent that development
work moving forward will typically only concentrate on lead-free solders
and components rather than tin-lead solders and components.
This book aims to give the latest information on development of the
lead-free soldering materials and processes and identify where more work
is needed. The chapters of the book describe legislation, alloys, reflow,
wave, rework, reliability, backward and forward process compatibility,
PCB surface finishes and PCB laminates, and standards affecting the
general lead-free soldering arena.
The information in the book is provided by many authors who are fully
immersed in the transition from tin-lead to lead-free soldering as part of
their daily work lives. It is our hope that this book provides a useful source
of knowledge and information for process engineers and other functions
and stimulates further work in this area.
The chapter authors are to be thanked for spending their time and effort
to create their respective chapters, which is difficult to do when combined
with a busy work and personal family schedule.

Jasbir S. Bath
Solectron Corporation
January 2007
Table of Contents

Preface v
List of Authors xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Lead Restrictions and Other Regulatory Influences
on the Electronics Industry 5
1.1 Introduction 5
1.2 A Regulatory Tour of Europe 6
1.3 A Regulatory Tour of Asia 14
1.4 Regulatory Tour of the Americas 16
1.5 Business Impacts and Conclusions 17
Chapter 2: Fundamental Properties of Pb-Free Solder Alloys 21
2.1 Search for a Pb-Free Alternative to Sn-Pb Eutectic 21
2.2 Primary Alloy Design Criteria 21
2.3 Solder Alloy Solidification and Microstructural
Development 25
2.4 Melting Behavior 25
2.5 Solidification Behavior 44
2.6 Wetting and Solderability 58
2.7 Pb-Free Solder Mechanical Behavior and Solder Joint
Reliability 62
Chapter 3: Lead-Free Surface Mount Assembly 75
3.1 Introduction 75
3.2 Solder Paste Alloy 75
3.3 Screen Printing Process 76
3.4 Component Placement 77
3.5 Reflow Soldering 78
3.6 Solder Joint Inspection and Acceptance Criteria 82
Chapter 4: Lead-Free Wave Soldering 91
4.1 Introduction 91
viii Table of Contents

4.2 Lead-Free Wave Solder Alloy Alternatives 92

4.3 Wave Solder Equipment Recommendations 94
4.4 Process Recommendations 98
4.5 Solder Joint Characterization 102
4.6 Design Considerations 110
Chapter 5: Lead-Free Rework 117
5.1 Introduction 117
5.2 Lead-Free Hand Soldering SMT Rework 117
5.3 Lead-Free SMT Rework of BGA/CSP Soldered Joints 124
5.4 Lead-Free Pin-Through-Hole (PTH) Hand Solder Rework 135
5.5 Lead-Free Pin-Through-Hole Mini-Pot Rework Soldering 138
Chapter 6: Lead-Free Solder Joint Reliability 145
6.1 Introduction 145
6.2 General Trends 146
6.3 SAC Solder Joint Reliability Case Study 153
Chapter 7: Backward and Forward Compatibility 173
7.1 Introduction 173
7.2 Reliability of BGA/CSP Backward Compatibility 177
7.3 Estimation of Mixed Composition Liquidus Temperature 182
7.4 Chip Component and Lead-Frame-Component Backward
Compatibility 187
7.5 Forward Compatibility 190
7.6 Press Fit Connector Interconnections 192
Chapter 8: PCB Laminates 199
8.1 Introduction 199
8.2 Types of Stress in Printed Wiring Boards 200
8.3 Laminate Material Test Methods 202
8.4 Accelerated Thermal Stress Testing 206
8.5 Accelerated Thermal Stress Test Methods 209
8.6 HATS Test Methods – A Case Study 212
Chapter 9: Lead-Free Board Surface Finishes 221
9.1 Introduction 221
9.2 Process Overview 222
Chapter 10: Lead-Free Soldering Standards 271
10.1 Introduction 271
10.2 IPC and JEDEC Standards 271
 Table of Contents ix

10.3 IEC Standards 279

10.4 Japan (JEITA) Standards 280
10.5 Other Standards 281
Conclusions 285
Index 291
List of Authors

Jennifer Shepherd
Canyon Snow Consulting LLC
459 Monterey Avenue
Los Gatos
CA 95030
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Carol Handwerker
Purdue University
Materials and Electrical Engineering Building
501 Northwestern Avenue
West Lafayette
IN 47907-2044
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Kil-Won Moon
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8555
Gaithersburg
MD 20899-8555
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Ursula Kattner
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8555
Gaithersburg
MD 20899-8555
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
xii List of Authors

Sundar Sethuraman
Solectron Corporation
637 Gibraltar Court, Building 1
Milpitas
CA 95035
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Christiane Faure
Solectron Corporation
109E Chemin Departemental
CANEJAN BP 6
CESTAS CEDEX 33611
Bordeaux
France
E-mail: [email protected]

Jasbir Bath
Solectron Corporation
637 Gibraltar Court, Building 1
Milpitas
CA 95035
USA
E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]

Jianbiao (John) Pan

Cal Poly State University
Dept. of Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering
San Luis Obispo
CA 93407
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Dennis Willie
Solectron Corporation
637 Gibraltar Court, Building 1
Milpitas
CA 95035
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
 List of Authors xiii

Xiang Zhou
Solectron Corporation
637 Gibraltar Court, Building 1
Milpitas
CA 95035
USA
E-mail: XiangZ [email protected]

Jean-Paul Clech
For regular mail:
EPSI Inc.
P.O. Box 1522
Montclair
NJ 07042
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

For shipping with Fedex. UPS, Airborne etc:

EPSI Inc.
Attn: J-P. Clech
101 Gates Avenue, Ste. H-10
Montclair
NJ 07042
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Karl Sauter
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Semiconductor Packaging & PCB Technology
4150 Network Circle
Mailstop: SCA12-306
Santa Clara
CA 95054
USA
E-mail: [email protected]

Hugh Roberts
Atotech USA Inc.
1750 Overview Drive
Rock Hill
SC 29730
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
xiv List of Authors

Kuldip Johal
Atotech USA Inc.
1750 Overview Drive
Rock Hill
SC 29730
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
For my Mum (Kuldip Kaur Bath), Dad (Harbans Singh Bath), wife (Piyanoot)
and three little girls (Palm, Mint and Surinder)
Introduction

The discussion to create this book on lead-free soldering came in October

2005 during a U.S. National Electronics Conference organized by SUNY-
Binghamton. There appeared to be a need for a lead-free soldering book
which covered subjects in detail but not to a depth which would not be
practical for the process engineer. This book brings together a diverse array
of persons from different companies and expertise who are currently in the
area of lead-free soldering development. The contents of the book provide
a guide to understanding the main issues in lead-free soldering.
Lead-free and other environmental regulatory legislation is appearing
rapidly and affecting the electronics industry. Engineers need to be aware
of what will affect them currently and what is potentially on the horizon to
help them to adjust and adapt. The first chapter (by Canyon Snow Consult-
ing LLC) covers a review of existing and upcoming lead and other material
restriction legislation and discusses the driving forces behind them.
Although there have been many book chapters and paper discussions of
lead-free alloys, there is a need for persons (from Purdue University and
NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology)) who have been
involved in the forefront of lead-free alloy development to review various
properties of lead-free solder alloys, in particular those alloys which are being
predominantly used in the industry. This book provides an in-depth review
of them and a discussion of the issues surrounding them in Chapter 2.
The main use of these alloys is in surface mount assembly, and Chapter 3
reviews SMT lead-free reflow soldering which focuses on the main lead-
free alloy of choice: tin-silver-copper (SnAgCu). An area where there is a
minimal amount of research papers and virtually no book chapters avail-
able is lead-free wave soldering as the focus of lead-free research devel-
opment has centered on surface mount assembly. A chapter on lead-free
wave soldering was identified as a gap which would be of use to the pro-
cess engineer (Chapter 4). Even though rework is not desired, and should
be minimized, it is part of the manufacturing process. There is a minimal
amount of research papers and virtually no book chapters available on
lead-free rework and this was also identified as a gap to be of use to the
process engineer (Chapter 5). All three of these chapters were written by
authors from an electronics manufacturer (Solectron Corporation).
2 Introduction

After the board is assembled, the main question which is asked is ‘will the
assembled solder joint be reliable?’. Chapter 6 concentrates on one aspect
of reliability from an author (from EPSI Inc.) who has been at the forefront
of lead-free reliability investigations. This chapter begins with a summary of
trends in reliability test results for some of the mainstream lead-free alloys
used in board assemblies. It then presents a case study with the goal of
presenting the type of data, material properties and analysis that are needed
to estimate component attachment reliability for a given soldering alloy
under thermal cycling conditions. One objective of this exercise is to illus-
trate the level of details that are required to develop stress/strain analysis
models and estimate component attachment reliability in lead-free board
assemblies. By definition, reliability is product and application specific
and blanket statements about the reliability of a lead-free assembly need to
be considered with caution. Part of the solder joint assembly reliability
discussions also focuses on the transition to lead-free soldering where a
lead-free solder paste or wave alloy may be assembled with tin-lead com-
ponents, and a tin-lead solder paste or wave alloy may be assembled with
lead-free components. Although there have been some papers discussing
whether there are any reliability issues with this ‘mixed’ assembly process-
ing, there have been few or no book chapters reviewing this specific area.
The author of this chapter (from Cal Poly State University) gives an objec-
tive and detailed discussion of the issues with possible solutions. Chapter 7
also discusses the use of lead-free press-fit components from an electronics
assembler (Solectron Corporation) with first hand experience of some of
the potential issues that can be faced.
One area which is a work in progress is the development of PCB laminate
materials for lead-free soldering, particularly laminates for thicker high
end reliability boards. The chapter author (from SUN Microsystems) gives
an objective and focused review of PCB laminates for lead-free soldering
with testing methodologies and a discussion of the need and reasons for
higher temperature-rated laminates for lead-free soldering (Chapter 8).
There have been many papers written about lead-free board finishes but
there have been few book chapters which give an objective and detailed
discussion of the different lead-free board surface finishes available. The
authors, who are part of a chemical plating supplier company (Atotech Inc.),
provide a clear discussion of the subject which will be a good reference
guide for process engineers (Chapter 9). The various advantages and dis-
advantages of the different lead-free board surface finishes are discussed.
No book on lead-free soldering should typically be finished without a
review of existing and developing lead-free standards identifying where
there are gaps in development. Chapter 10 is not a complete list of existing
 Introduction 3

and developing standards, but of those which have or will likely have a
role to play as reference standards for process engineers and is written by
an electronics assembly manufacturer (Solectron Corporation).
Although each chapter has its own conclusion, a small conclusions section
at the end of this book covers a discussion of the main conclusions from
each chapter, with a discussion of some of the areas which will need to be
explored and developed in the future. It is our hope that this book will pro-
vide a good grounding of the general areas for lead-free soldering for process
engineers and other functions and stimulate discussion and development in
this area.