Calibration of a Constitutive Model from Tension and Nanoindentation for Lead-Free Solder.

Abstract

It is challenging to evaluate constitutive behaviour by using conventional uniaxial tests for materials with limited sizes, considering the miniaturization trend of integrated circuits in electronic devices. An instrumented nanoindentation approach is appealing to obtain local properties as the function of penetration depth. In this paper, both conventional tensile and nanoindentation experiments are performed on samples of a lead-free Sn–3.0Ag–0.5Cu (SAC305) solder alloy. In order to align the material behaviour, thermal treatments were performed at different temperatures and durations for all specimens, for both tensile experiments and nanoindentation experiments. Based on the self-similarity of the used Berkovich indenter, a power-law model is adopted to describe the stress–strain relationship by means of analytical dimensionless analysis on the applied load-penetration depth responses from nanoindentation experiments. In light of the significant difference of applied strain rates in the tensile and nanoindentation experiments, two “rate factors” are proposed by multiplying the representative stress and stress exponent in the adopted analytical model, and the corresponding values are determined for the best predictions of nanoindentation responses in the form of an applied load–indentation depth relationship. Eventually, good agreement is achieved when comparing the stress–strain responses measured from tensile experiments and estimated from the applied load–indentation depth responses of nanoindentation experiments. The rate factors and are calibrated to be about 0.52 and 0.10, respectively, which facilitate the conversion of constitutive behaviour from nanoindentation experiments for material sample with a limited size.