Cross-Interaction Study of Cu/Sn/Pd and Ni/Sn/Pd Sandwich Solder Joint Structures

Abstract

Cross-interactions between Cu/Sn/Pd and Ni/Sn/Pd sandwich structures were investigated in this work. For the Cu/Sn/Pd case, the growth behavior and morphology of the interfacial (Pd,Cu)Sn4 compound layer was very similar to that of the single Pd/Sn interfacial reaction. This indicates that the growth of the (Pd,Cu)Sn4 layer at the Sn/Pd interface would not be affected by the opposite Cu/Sn interfacial reaction. We can conclude that there is no cross-interaction effect between the two interfacial reactions in the Cu/Sn/Pd sandwich structure. For the Ni/Sn/Pd case, we observed that: (1) after 300 s of reflow time, the (Pd,Ni)Sn4 compound heterogeneously nucleated on the Ni3Sn4 compound layer at the Sn/Ni interface; (2) the growth of the interfacial PdSn4 compound layer was greatly suppressed by the formation of the (Pd,Ni)Sn4 compound at the Sn/Ni interface. We believe that this suppression of PdSn4 growth is caused by heterogeneous nucleation of the (Pd,Ni)Sn4 compound in the Ni3Sn4 compound layer, which decreases the free energy of the entire sandwich reaction system. The difference in the chemical potential of Pd in the PdSn4 phase at the Pd/Sn interface and in the (Pd,Ni)Sn4 phase at the Sn/Ni interface is the driving force for the Pd atomic flux across the molten Sn. The diffusion of Ni into the ternary (Pd,Ni)Sn4 compound layer controls the Pd atomic flux across the molten Sn and the growth of the ternary (Pd,Ni)Sn4 compound at the Sn/Ni interface.