Search

The Lead-free solder has been subject of concentrated research activity over the past era, but it is hard to meet the characterization and mechanical properties of Sn-Pb solder. Sn-Ag-Cu and Sn-Cu family of alloys were the most ideal and capable among all the Pb-free solder alloys proposed. Much publicity had been received by the eutectic Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn0.7Cu solidifying their position as the most promising successor to Pb alloys solder. This study was to carry through the investigation of the effect of SiC particle on microstructure development and physical properties of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC) based solder alloys. Powder metalurgy method (PM) was used to synthesize SAC-SiC composite solders, which involves some processes like mechanical blending, compaction and sintering. The outcome shows the additional of SiC particle has decreasing the β-Sn region and at the same time, the values of microhardness were increased.

Transient Liquid Phase (TLP) has been a potential bonding technique for high temperature application solder alloy. TLP bonding for solder is a soldering method that using a low and high temperature metal layer for solid form solder, and a mixing of low and high temperature metal powder in flux medium, for paste form solder. Transient Liquid Phase bonding process involved thoroughly consumption of low melting point metal into high melting point metal and results in the formation of high temperature melting point peritectic intermetallic compound (IMC) which enables the solder to be soldered at typical low soldering temperature but, the solder connection can be applied in the high temperature application. The morphology of the peritectic IMCs mainly consist two solids, which is primary α as well as peritectic β together with liquid phase at peritectic temperature. The growth formation of those primary α and peritectic β phases has resulted with a variety of possible peritectic microstructure’s morphology as will be discussed further.

The whisker phenomenon has caused the reliability issues which induce short circuit in the electronic manufacturing industries. The research is conducted to study on the formation of pure tin whisker under the control of stress and temperature with the application of mechanical indentation and the formation of whisker can be classified into distinct shape accordingly. The specified ranges of stress and surrounding temperature are set up accordingly to promote the whisker mechanism of pure tin whisker. The pure tin whisker formed is examined in term of morphology characterization via Optical Microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope to analyze on the effect of stress and temperature on the growth morphology of pure tin whisker. This report outlines the research in progress on the development of the pure tin whisker formation.

Nowadays, composite solder has gained researcher’s attention due to its promising improvement in physical and mechanical properties for lead-free solder. To improve the properties of Sn-0.7Cu (SnCu): the promising lead-free candidate, addition of silicon carbide (SiC) as a reinforcement was used into this study. However, its limitation on solderability as compared with SnAgCu (SAC) make it not an attractive alternative lead-free solder. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of SiC particle on microstructure evolution and physical properties of SnCu based solder alloys. SnCu-SiC composite solders were synthesized by powder metallurgy method (PM), which consists of several processes such as mechanical blending, compaction and sintering. Five different weight percentages of SiC particle; 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 were mechanically blended with SnCu lead-free solder. The result shows that the addition of SiC particle has decreased the β-Sn area and refined the microstructure of composite solder. In addition, the improvement in microhardness of composite was achieved.

Precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) is an innovative product generated from lime that significantly offers various functional characteristics in fulfilling numerous market demand. PCC is produced by hydrating high-calcium quicklime resulting slurry so-called milk-of-lime and reacting the slurry with carbon dioxide (CO2) via carbonation process. The resulting PCC product is extremely white and typically has a uniform narrow particle size distribution. PCC is available in various crystal morphologies and sizes, which can be tailored to optimize performance in a specific application. The final properties of the PCC can be diversified by controlling processing parameters. In this current work, effect of liquid air pressure corresponding to feeding rate on a formation of PCC was investigated. In enhancing the product yield, the quicklime was initially converted into a solution containing calcium ion (Ca2+) using natural promoter agent. Subsequently, CO2 gas was continuously supplied into the Ca-rich ionic solution, thus inducing carbonation reaction to form PCC. This present work showed the carbonation time of producing PCC was effectively reduced as a function of feeding rate from 15 minutes at 10 psi to only 7 minutes at 50 psi. The PCC yield slightly increased from 19 g to 23 g with increasing the feeding rate from 10 psi to 50 psi, respectively. Morphologically, the PCC particles were dominated by rhombohedral structures at various feeding rates with an indication of intergrowth mechanism. This current finding signified the increasing feeding rate offered a significant reduction of PCC production time that might be efficiently applied by the industrial manufacturers.

Composite solder has gained researcher’s attention due to its promising improvement in physical and mechanical properties for lead-free solder. To improve the properties of Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC) with the promising lead-free candidate, addition of silicon carbide (SiC) as a reinforcement was used in this study. This study was carried out to identify the effect of SiC particle on microstructure evolution and physical properties of SAC based solder alloys. SAC-SiC composite solder was synthesized by powder metallurgy method (PM), which consists of several processes such as mechanical blending, compaction and sintering. Three different weight percentages of SiC particles; 0.00, 0.50, and 1.00 were mechanically blended with SAC lead-free solder. The results show that the additional of particle SiC was able to refine the microstructure and reduced the size of β-Sn.

This research has investigated the advantages of Sn-0.7Cu composite solder compared to conventional Sn-0.7Cu solder. The method used for fabricating the composite solder is a powder metallurgy (PM) technique. SiC and Al particles were added to Sn-0.7Cu powder during the mixing process. The Sn-0.7Cu solder composite that reinforced with 0.25 wt% of SiC and 0.5 wt% of Al, were successfully synthesized via PM technique. The result showed that the addition of SiC and Al were improving the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the solder as well as reduces the material cost.

In order to reduce the Tin (Sn) whisker growth phenomenon in solder alloys, the researcher all the world has studied the factor of this behaviour. However, this phenomenon still hunted the electronic devices and industries. The whiskers growth were able to cause the electrical short, which would lead to the catastrophic such as plane crush, the failure of heart pacemaker, and the lost satellite connection. This article focuses on the three factors that influence the whiskers growth in solder alloys which is stress, oxidation layer and temperature. This findings were allowed the researchers to develop various method on how to reduce the growth of the Sn whiskers.