Effect of TiO₂ nanoparticles on the microstructure, mechanical and thermal properties of rapid quenching SAC355 lead-free solder alloy

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the effect of a small amount of TiO2 NPs addition on the microstructure, thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of environmentally friendly eutectic (SAC355)100-x(TiO2)x (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1 wt.%) solder alloys. Design/methodology/approach Mechanical, thermal and electrical properties and microstructure conditions are taken into major consideration in any study of materials containing nanoparticles. Dynamic resonance technique, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were carried out to study stiffness, identification of the phases and the morphology features of the solder. Structure and microstructure analysis indicated that the presence of rhombohedral β–Sn phase in addition to orthorhombic intermetallic compound (IMC) Ag3Sn and Cu3Sn phase dispersed in Sn matrix. In addition, the results showed that TiO2 NPs addition at a small trace amount into SAC355 system reduces and improves the particle size of both rhombohedral β–Sn and orthorhombic IMC Ag3Sn and Cu3Sn. The interstitial dispersion of TiO2 NPs at grain boundaries resulted in Ag3Sn being more uniform needle-like, which is distributed in the β–Sn matrix. The fine and uniform microstructure leads to improvement of mechanical strength. Findings Some important conclusions are summarized as follows: microstructure investigations revealed that the addition of TiO2 NPs particles to eutectic SAC355 inhibited in reducing and refines the crystallite size as well as the Ag3Sn IMC, which reinforced the strength of plain solder alloy. The mechanical properties values such as Young’s modulus and Vickers microhardness of SAC355 solder alloy can be significantly improved by adding a trace amount of TiO2 NPs compared with plain solder because of the existence of appropriate volume fraction of Ag3Sn IMC. The results show that the best creep resistance is obtained when the addition of 0.3 wt.% of TiO2 NPs is compared to plain solder. TiO2 NPs addition could increase the melting temperature, compared with plain solder. All results showed that TiO2 NPs addition is an effective method to enhance new solder joints. Practical implications New solder alloys. Originality/value Development of TiO2 NPs-doped eutectic SAC355 lead-free solder for electronic packaging.

ZnO nanoparticles and compositional dependence of structural, thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of eutectic SAC355 lead-free solder

“…The axial ratio value is frequently around 0.577, greater than 0.547 for SAC355 plain solder alloys. Also, the changes in the volume of the unit cell, V, had an opposite manner to the crystallite size (D) in agreement with the following equation RA = dV/1.6602, where RA is the sum of the atomic weight in the unit cell and d is the measured density in g/cm 3 (Alsorory et al, 2022).…”

“…All samples of the (SAC355) 100- x (ZnO) x NPs solder alloys had a surface covered with numerous large, smooth, symmetrical plate-like grains, with a few spherical grains and some irregular grains distributed in the homogenous surfaces. The presence of symmetrical plate-like grains indicated the predominance of β-Sn (dominant phase), whereas spherical grains and other irregularly shaped grains could be attributed to the Ag 3 Sn and ZnO NPs phases, respectively (Alsorory et al , 2022; Gondal et al , 2016). The branched cracks in Figure 3(c–e) at 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 Wt.% ZnO NP addition could be attributed to the accumulated ZnO NPs that induced deformation in the solder alloys by their irregularly shaped grains compared to spherical grains.…”

Wettability of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu Solder Reinforced with TiO2 and Al2O3 Nanoparticles at Different Reflow Times

“…In the meantime, the liquidus temperature of the SAC305 nanocomposite solder increased slightly to 231 °C as compared to the typical SAC305 solder. The slight increase in the heating profile was similarly found by [38,40]; the melting point of SAC305 solder increased slightly when it was reinforced with TiO2 and Al2O3 nanoparticles. The slight increment in the melting temperature was due to the high melting points of TiO2 (TM = 1843 °C) and Al2O3 (TM = 2072 °C) nanoparticles.…”

“…Al 2 O 3 nanoparticles can restrict the growth of IMC layers, reduce the grain size, and improve the reliability of solder joints [15,20,37]. Additionally, TiO 2 nanoparticles could also inhibit the growth of IMC layers, have better wettability, strengthen the solder joints, and increase the hardness of the solder [9,34,38]. ZrO 2 nanoparticles were found to restrict IMC growth and to possess higher yield strength and supreme tensile strength, but to form pores in the nanocomposite solder [21,29].…”

Hybrid solder joints: the effect of nanosized ZrO2 particles on morphology of as-reflowed and thermally aged Sn–3.5Ag solder joints

“…In the last decade, the main focus of lead-free related studies was on SAC alloys, while a major number of these studies investigated the SAC solders doped with various types of nanoparticles. For instance, Pb-free Sn–Ag–Cu solders with minor additions of various ceramic nanosized particles and their joints have been widely studied (Al-sorory et al 2022 ; Aspalter et al 2020 ; Plevachuk et al 2019 ; Wang et al 2015 ; Yakymovych et al 2016 ). The most frequently used nanosized ceramic powders are Al 2 O 3 , SiO 2 , TiO 2 , and ZrO 2 .…”