Metallographic preparation of the SnAgCu solders for optical microscopy and EBSD Investigations

In order to investigate the microstructure of lead-free SnAgCu solders by optical microscopy and Electron Backscatter Diffraction it is necessary to provide a qualitative metallographic preparation. The difficulties of a preparation of these solders are connected with a high softness and presence of hard intermetallic compounds. They are discussed in this study and the appropriate recipe is proposed. The samples were manufactured of SnAg3Cu0.7 (wt. %) solder in a form of solder spheres with a diameter of 270 μm, cooled at the rate of 1.1 K/s. The metallographic preparation was carried out on a TegraSystem from Struers. The quality of the prepared samples was checked by image Orientation Imaging Microscopy softwarequality maps, created by the Orientation Imaging Microscopy software.