Creep Activation Energy of SAC305 Using Nano-Indentation
Publication Number: 5991-3584EN
Publication Date: 2015.01.27
Language: English
Application Notes

Creep Activation Energy of SAC305 Using Nano-Indentation

Show Description

Lead-free solder alloys are commonly used in electronic packaging. One concern of the electronics industry is the contribution of creep to the failure of solder-joint interconnects. The activation energy quantifies the necessary energetic conditions for creep and illuminates the mechanism by which creep occurs. The activation energy for a material must be known in order to predict the creep rate in engineering applications. Using nano-indentation, we measure the creep activation energy of SAC305 solder (96.5% Sn, 3% Ag, 0.5% Cu) to be Q = 64 ±22 kJ/mol over a temperature range of 25–75 °C. The measurement of activation energy requires knowledge of the stress exponent, which we also measure by nano-indentation (n = 6.82 ±1.7).