1. Introduction
Since the development of microelectronic devices requires increasingly integrated designs, the number of components attached to decreasing substrate areas, increases, the solder joint reliability grows because of the vast field of duty as electrical, mechanical and thermal link between component and substrate. The integration of components in the confined design space leads to increasing demands for solder joints reliability with focus on thermal and mechanical loads. The majority of studies in literature deal with improving material properties through alloying of the solder or improving the solder-substrate interface strength [1–4]. Using the distinct environment in microelectronic devices with varying temperature and, thereby, induced mechanical forces on the component/solder/substrate compound, to heal the solder material is a novel strategy to extend the reliability and lifetime of solder joints under service conditions. Healing in metals is still gaining interest among various material classes [5,6,7]. Two different healing mechanisms can be initiated: healing through precipitation [8] or solid-liquid phase transformation [9], which both lead to an effective regain of material cross-section and material stiffness. Specific Sn-Bi alloys were reported to show liquid-assisted healing effects under compressive forces and at elevated temperatures through local melting [10,11]. For further development of solders with healing properties, investigation of a solder under the last-mentioned load is important. The study of such properties needs, therefore, a suitable “damage-healing” test procedure.