Mechanical Properties of Intermetallic Compounds at Elevated Temperature by Nanoindentation

With the high operating temperature in power electronics devices, the reliability of lead-free solder joints in electronic packages at high temperatures is important. Solder joint reliability depends on a large extent on the mechanical properties of the thin intermetallic compound layer, especially hardness and Young's modulus. In this paper, the mechanical properties of Cu6Sn5, the main component of IMC, at high temperature are measured by nanoindentation. After being processed and analyzed, data are compared with the room temperature one. The results show that temperature changes have effect on the mechanical properties of lead-free solder joints.