Wettability of molten Sn-Ag-Cu alloy on Cu substrate has been determined by sessile drop method, as well as its dependence on time and temperature. It was found that the evolution of contact angle at the alloy's melting point experienced four different stages. Especially, the contact angle was unstable and fluctuant in stage II, and gradually decreased in stage III mainly due to a chemical reaction between Sn-Ag-Cu alloy and Cu substrate. The contact angle decreased with increasing temperature, but increased slightly at 629 K, for another chemical reaction occurred. Interfacial characteristic has been further investigated by examining the sample's cross section. Intermetallic compounds of Cu 6 Sn 5 and β-Sn phase were found at the interface of Sn-Ag-Cu/Cu.
contact angle, lead-free solder, sessile drop method, Sn-Ag-Cu, intermetallic compounds Citation:Zhang X R, Yuan Z F, Zhao H X, et al. Wetting behavior and interfacial characteristic of Sn-Ag-Cu solder alloy on Cu substrate.There have been several regulations to ban Pb from electronic products all over the world. The European Union's RoHS directive is the initial driving force for the elimination of Pb because Pb contained in conventional solder materials has harmful influence on the environment and human health [1−6]. As a result, lead-free solders with microstructure stability and mechanical properties comparable with eutectic Pb-Sn solder stimulate immense interests in microelectronic application. Nowadays several lead-free solders including Sn-Ag, Sn-Cu, Sn-Zn, Sn-Ag-Bi and Sn-Ag-Cu systems have been developed. Among them, the near-ternary eutectic Sn-Ag-Cu system solders have been regarded as primary candidates because of their good mechanical and acceptable wetting properties as well as suitable melting points [7−10]. Wettability has been defined as the tendency for a liquid to spread on a solid surface, and it is optimized by minimizing the value of contact angle, which corresponds to lower surface-interfacial energy. Therefore, the measurement of contact angle between solder and substrate is used to determine the extent of wetting, which is a very important issue in the reliability of electronic packaging. The reported values in the literature on the contact angle for lead-free solder alloys are quite disparate and hard to be compared with each other, mainly due to the different experimental conditions [8,11]. Another issue is the formation and growth of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) between solder and substrate, which is of great importance to the performance of lead-free solders [12].The purpose of this work is to investigate the wetting behavior and interfacial characteristic of Sn-Ag-Cu solder alloy on Cu substrate. Contact angles were measured by sessile drop method, and the morphology of the interface of Sn-Ag-Cu/Cu was also investigated.