Design of Experiment (DOE) of Powder Metallurgy Technique in Fabricating SnCu/Carbon Lead-Free Composite Solder with Different Mixing Parameters

Abstract

Physical and mechanical properties of a solder joint will be improved by adding the high performance of reinforcement particulates in the monolithic lead-free solder. In this study, 0.1wt% of activated carbon (AC) was added into Sn-0.7Cu lead-free solder which fabricated via powder metallurgy (PM) techniques. Various parameters used in PM technique such as mixing time, compacting load and sintering temperature has been carried out in fabricating the composite solder. In this study, the best mixing time has been optimized. The distribution of carbon in SnCu matrix for each mixing time was observed by using optical microscope. Microstructural observation showed that the increasing in mixing time has increased the number of AC particles to become agglomerated. It is found out that 1hour of mixing time is the best parameter to fabricate SnCu/AC composite solder via powder metallurgy route since the distribution of reinforcement particles has distributed uniformly at the grain boundaries without any agglomeration.