The Effect of Graphene on the Intermetallic and Joint Strength of Sn-3.5Ag Lead-free Solder.

Solder has been widely used in electronic industry as interconnection for electronic packaging. European Union and Japan have restricted the use of Sn-Pb solder as it contains lead which can harmful to human health and environment. Due to this, many researches have been done in order to find a suitable replacement for the lead solder. Although many lead-free solders are available, the Sn-3.5Ag solder with the addition of graphene seem to be a suitable candidate. In this study, a 0.07 wt% graphene nanosheet was added into the Sn-3.5Ag solder and this composite solder was prepared under powder metallurgy method. The solder was reacted with copper substrate at 250 oC for one minute. For joint strength analysis, two copper strips were soldered together. The solder joint was aged at temperature 100 °C for 500 hours. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to observe the interfacial reaction and Instron machine was used to determine the joint strength.Cu6Sn5 intermetallic layer was formed at the interface between the Cu substrate and the solders. Composite solder showed the retardation of the intermetallic growth compared to the plain solder. The thickness value of the intermetallic was used to calculate the growth rate the IMC. The graphene nanosheets added solder has lower growth rate which is 3.86 x 10-15 cm2/s compared to the plain solder 7.15 x 10-15 cm2/s. Shear strength analysis show that the composite solder has higher joint compared to the plain solder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]