Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2017
In recent years, the material Au-20Sn eutectic solder, which is resistant to high temperatures, is used for electric interconnections in high-power modules, the material properties such as temperature and strain rate dependent stress-strain curve are critically needed for reliability assessment of Au-20Sn solder joint. Thus, this study was performed to determine the material properties of Au-20Sn eutectic solder under various strain rates and temperature loads. Many researches using shear test to determine the shear resistance of solder joint, however, the mechanical strength as measured by the shear test is the maximum shear strength of the package joint, but this measurement does not represent the stress-strain behavior of Au-20Sn material. To identify the material properties of Au-20Sn eutectic solder, the tensile test was performed to measure its mechanical strength and nonlinear material properties. The strain rate effect was examined in terms of the influence of the mechanical strength on the Au-20Sn eutectic solder at different tensile rates. The temperature-dependent material properties of Au-20Sn solder were also measured under various thermal loadings, and material properties of Au-20Sn obtained in this research can be applied to the simulation model, the thermomechanical behavior and reliability of the power module can be further analyzed and evaluated.