“…Researchers have found that composite solders that are prepared with the addition of an external reinforced phase or by an alloying method can improve the performance of the solder joint and reduce the risk of failures caused by EM. For example, it has been found that the addition of an appropriate quantity of metallic material such as Co, Ni, Sb and Zn, a non-metallic material such as ZnO and Al 2 O 3 , or a carbon nano-material such as carbon nanotubes into a conventional Sn-based solder, can suppress the EM phenomenon to an extent (Sun et al , 2016; Zhao et al , 2013; Hu et al , 2013; Xu et al , 2011; Wang and Li, 2016; Wang et al , 2017; Bashir et al , 2016; Yang et al , 2013). In the authors’ previous work a new type of lead-free composite solder that was alloyed with nickel-plated graphene (Ni-GNS), was developed (Chen et al , 2016a, 2016b).…”