On the formation and propagation of laminate cracks and their influence on the fatigue lives of solder joints

Lead-free solder joints have been shown to increase the risk for crack formation in the PCB laminate under the solder pads. As such cracks propagate during thermal cycling, they decrease the strain imposed on the solderjoint by acting as strain relief. In accelerated thermal cycling, these joints have been found to remain virtually undamaged even after a very high number of cycles. If these cracks do not form or propagate to the same extent under milder cycling conditions, typical of service conditions, it may lead to an overestimation of the fatigue life of the solder joints in accelerated testing. In this work, the extent of strain relief and the influence of grain orientations on the initiation and propagation of these cracks are investigated through FE-modelling and compared to what has been experimentally observed for cross-sections of solder joints moulded in epoxy resin with added fluorescent agent and inspected using UV-light and electron backscatter diffraction. Due to the strong anisotropy of lead-free solder joints, the stress transferred to the laminate will vary significantly depending on grain orientation. The presence of these laminate cracks adds another layer of uncertainty to the already complex SnAgCu system, where the strong effects of anisotropy, the continuously evolving secondary precipitate coarsening and its interaction with the recrystallisation process govern the damage evolution. If these effects are not properly accounted for, the interpretation of thermal cycling or modelling and simulation results may be strongly misleading.