Lead-free SMT Soldering Defects

How to Prevent Them

Author: Peter Biocca, Senior Development Engineer, Kester, Des Plaines, Illinois.
Telephone 972.390.1197; email [email protected]
Lead-free SMT Soldering Defects – How to Prevent Them
Tin-Silver-Copper alloys are the primary choice for lead-free SMT assembly. Although
there are other options available such as alloys containing bismuth or indium and other
elements, tin-silver-copper solders, also known as SAC alloys are by far the most
popular. They are used by approximately 65% of users, as last surveyed by Soldertec in
2003.

The lead-free SMT process differs from a 63/37 process in numerous ways. A good
understanding of these differences when using SAC alloys, will enable process
engineers to bring about the necessary changes to the SMT process and reduce
soldering defects, increase lead-free assembly reliability and maintain production yields.

Often when a manufacturer transitions to lead-free soldering an increase in defects is

noticed. This is often the result of a not properly implemented process. A well-defined,
optimized and controlled lead-free process will not augment defect rates.

The main differences between a leaded and lead-free SMT process are summarized
below:

‰ Solder physical properties, melting point, surface tension, oxidation

potential, metallurgy and metal leaching potential
‰ Higher peak temperatures
‰ Higher preheat temperatures
‰ Lead-free finishes for boards and components (preferred)
‰ Solder cosmetics and surface effects
‰ Solderability differences such as speed of wetting and spread
‰ Less self-centering or alignment of components

The liquidus temperature of SAC alloys is 217-220 °C; this is about 34°C above the
melting point of eutectic 63/37. This higher melting range requires peak temperatures to
achieve wetting and wicking to be in the range of 235-245°C. Lower peak temperatures
can be used with SAC solders such as 229° C. This lower peak temperature often can
only be used for boards with lower overall thermal masses or assemblies, which do not
have a large thermal mass differential across the board. This lower peak temperature
may also require extended times above liquidus (TAL).

Higher reflow profile temperatures will require the use of new solder paste flux
chemistries. Solder paste flux accounts for nearly 50% of the solder paste volume.
Its ingredients characterize the paste’s rheological properties, its ability to print,
avoidance of cold and hot slump, tack life, stencil life and abandon time.

As the preheat is engaged during reflow, the flux system will prevent hot slump, prevent
oxidation of the metals to be joined, deoxidize the solder powder and remove oxides of
the metals to be joined. The flux system insures an oxide free solder surface as to give
the lowest surface energies to enable spread and wicking of solder.

After reflow is complete the flux system must be easily removed in water if it is a water
washable paste or remain benign if it is a no-clean type paste. With some no-clean
solder pastes the residue must not undergo complete polymerization as to remain pin-
probeable.
The basic ingredients in a solder paste flux can be summarized as indicated below:

‰ Resins solid and liquid types

‰ Activators, organic acid and/or hydrohalides
‰ Solvents and co-solvents
‰ Gelling agents
‰ Surfactants
‰ Chelating agents

Solder paste manufacturers have had to revisit most of these ingredients to account for
the higher temperatures experienced in the reflow operation. Most of these ingredients
are organic compounds and thermal stability up to 245°C is essential to avoid issues of
decomposition, oxidation, and polymerization of paste flux during reflow.

Lead-free solder pastes designed for lead-free alloys and also alloy specific will function
best and help prevent solder defects.

Typical defects associated with lead-free reflow soldering are:

‰ Bridging
‰ Solder balls
‰ Mid-chip balling
‰ Poor wetting
‰ Voids
‰ Tomb-stoning
‰ De-wetting

Bridging, Solder balls and Mid-chip Balling

The first three defects bridging, solder balls and mid-chip balling can arise from the
solder selection process. Since preheats are higher with lead-free, the hot slump
character of the paste is critical; solder pastes with good hot slump at higher
temperatures such as 185°C are needed. Traditional 63/37 paste has already melted
and flowed at these temperatures; the gelling materials has broken down.

The example below, demonstrates this quite well, two SAC solder pastes are shown.

Both pastes were run through a reflow oven at 180°C. Paste B has better hot slump
properties than Paste A and would less likely cause bridges, solder balls or mid-chip
balling. For fine pitch components it is critical to select a lead-free paste with a heat
stable gelling agent.
 Increasing need for superior hot slump

Poor wetting of terminations and pads

Non-wetting or insufficient wetting is also encountered. It must be understood that

different metallization will exhibit differing spread and wicking characteristics and also
flux activity will play an important role. Lead-free SAC alloys during solderability testing
using wetting balance instruments demonstrated the best wetting when water washable
flux systems were used. No-clean flux systems containing less activator and/or free of
halides demonstrated lower wetting speeds and lower maximum force readings.

Bare copper OSP boards, which have seen more than one thermal cycle, are prone to
incomplete pad wetting. While pure tin, silver immersion finishes exhibit better solder
spread. Ni/Au if the nickel is not affected with impurities or oxides will normally solder
well. Below are two examples, one with SAC alloy on copper and the other on silver
immersion; both QFP’s were reflowed in air, using a SAC no-clean paste ROLO type
flux.

SAC and bare copper OSP SAC and Silver Immersion

Poor solderability, insufficient wetting, poor wicking of solder, and large contact angles
can also result from an inadequate thermal profile. It is very important to achieve good
thermal equilibrium across the whole board, this becomes more important with lead-free
since the peak temperature window is narrower. SAC alloys melts at 217°C while the
peak temperature needs to be in the range of 235-245°C.

If BGA’s are present on the lead-free assembly, these components act as heat sinks, the
solder paste may not completely reflow under the BGA, while other smaller components
may show good soldering. It becomes very important to establish good thermal profiling
points across the board, including under BGA’s. To properly insure wetting has occurred
completely, optical inspection or X-ray inspection may be necessary.

A test board is essential for the first lead-free

assembly to insure thermal requirements are met
across the board. The diagram to the left, shows
the proper way to measure the heat applied to the
balls in the grid array.
No wetting, due to low heat Excessive temperature Good thermal profile

The photo on the left shows balls, which have not undergone reflow due to insufficient
heat. By measuring the temperature accurately at the ball site, this can be avoided. The
temperature at the ball site had not seen 217°C the melting point of SAC balls.

The photo in the center shows what happens when excessive temperature is seen by
the BGA, in this case the temperature was measured at about 265°C at the ball site.

The photo on the right, shows the proper collapse of lead-free balls with the thermal
profile properly set. The standoff distance may be higher with lead-free SAC due to its
higher surface tension.

There are other reasons why lead-free reflow demonstrates poor wetting and the main
causes are summarized below:

• Solder paste activity level is too low

• Excessive preheat temperatures
• Too long a preheat
• Difficult to solder finishes
• Insufficient time above liquidus temperature
• Excessive oxidation of parts to be joined

Lead-free solder pastes require activation to be sustained beyond traditional tin-lead

systems up to 217°C and beyond for SAC alloys. Like traditional 63/37 no-clean pastes,
such as ROLO types, the prevention of oxidation to parts and boards is critical. Flux
classifications such as ROM1 may contain halides and are therefore better able to cope
with oxides or difficult to solder parts.

Tin-Silver-Copper solders wet most metal surfaces more slowly and adequate times
above the melting point of the solder is needed to achieve good wicking and solder
spread. Normally the range is 60-90 seconds with peak temperatures from 235-245°C.

If soldering is jeopardized by oxidation of parts to be soldered, this can be verified using

solderability test methods such as the wetting balance test.

Voids in lead-free joints and BGA’s

Much has been written about void prevention when soldering with lead-free solder
pastes containing tin-silver-copper. Excessive solder voids can create a reliability issue
especially in applications where the lead-free assembly will be exposed to thermal
cycling conditions or in applications where the assembly will be exposed to vibration, or
flexing during box builds. Also voids can reduce thermal performance and reduce
electrical integrity.
It must also be stated that smaller voids can in cases increase reliability by changing the
crack pattern. Studies have shown that there is no reduction in reliability when voids are
present to up to 25% by volume in the joint. Voids can act as stress relievers, due in part
to the compressive nature of air pockets.

This is documented in the technical paper, Voiding: Occurrence and Reliability Issues
with Lead-free, by Martin Wickham of the National Physical Laboratory.

Some causes of voids in joints are summarized below:

• Solder paste chemistry

• Solder surface tension effects
• Thermal profile
• Oxidation of the outer surface of solder joints
• Termination geometries, joint shape
• Metallization of finishes for boards and components
• Component board out-gassing during reflow

X-Ray, Voids in QFP joints X-Ray, Voids in BGA ‘s

Lead-free alloys such as SAC alloys have slight higher surface tensions when compared
to 63/37. It is important to select a solder paste which has a flux chemistry designed for
the higher preheats and peak temperatures. Choosing a solder paste, which does not
contain resins and activators which decompose at these higher temperatures is the
primary factor in void reduction. Good solder paste manufacturers are designing flux
systems for lead-free alloys. The voiding potential information is often available for use
during the paste selection process.

Optimizing the reflow profile as to remove any volatiles by extending the preheat times
and increasing the time above liquidus will also help in reducing void entrapment.
Insuring components and boards are free of moisture and plating contaminants will also
help to reduce voids. It has been shown that copper OSP tends to produce slightly
higher volume of voids when compared to Ni/Au and silver immersion, which produce
much less.

In some cases joint geometries are contributors. Components such as leadless chip
carries or large flat surfaces, perpendicular to the board will prevent out-gassing during
the soldering process; this results in void increases. Solder flux by-products both
liquid and gases, will have to slowly make their way upwards. Component geometries,
which prevent the proper upward flow, will usually result in an increase in voids.
Tombstoning defects with lead-free

Lead-free may increase the uplifting of smaller components. This is due in part to the
reduced wetting behavior of lead-free alloys. Component placement is more important
with lead-free alloys since less centering will occur during reflow. This can increase the
incidence of tombstones.

SAC305 tends to reduce tombstones, this alloy has a concentration of 96.5 Tin, 3.0
Silver and 0.5 Copper and has melting range of 217-220°C. Because of the small pasty
range the component prone to tombstone is tacked by the initial melting phase of the
alloy.

A solder paste, which exhibits excessive out-gassing during the initial stages of the
melting of the solder powder, will also increase tombstone defects. The paste
manufacturer must carefully choose resins and solvents, which do not decompose or
vaporize at the melting point of the alloy.

De-wetting with lead-free

De-wetting is often due to a lack of flux activity. This behavior rarely occurs with water-
washable type pastes since these pastes are highly activated. Lower activity solder
pastes in the category of ROLO, halide free no-cleans pastes tend to create this on more
difficult finishes such bare copper OSP or on Ni-Au where the nickel base metal, may
have experienced oxidation or plating contamination.

Below are test coupons on which SAC no-clean paste was applied to two surfaces.
The test coupons were then reflowed in air using the manufacturer’s recommended
thermal profile. The one on the right shows de-wetting while the one on the right exhibits
good wetting. The pooling of the solder was due to the base metal being difficult to
solder to. The molten solder initial spread across the surface but not a good enough
intermetallic bond was formed, resulting in surface tension pulling the solder away.

SAC De-wetting SAC Good wetting

Ways to reduce or prevent de-wetting with lead-free SMT are:

• Select a paste with excellent activity up to the melting point of the alloy,
217°C for SAC alloys
• Use a more active flux system
• Insure metals to be joined are oxide-free as possible
• Insure base metals are solderable with the selected flux type
• Reduce the preheat time or temperatures as to preserve flux activity
• Increase time above liquidus (217 °C), if flux activity is good
Excessive dullness and surface effects with lead-free

SAC alloys offer solder joints which are less reflective than 63/37; the contact angles
tend to also be higher and spread is less. These are not considered defects but only
cosmetic.

If air reflow is used, SAC joints will be less bright and show surface effects such as
crazing which are due to the intermetallics within the solder and oxidation effects.

If nitrogen reflow is used the joints will be more reflective and spread will be enhanced.

Below are two photos. The one on the left is 63/37, while the other shows joints done
with SAC305 alloy.

63/37 Solder in air SAC Solder in air

Lower peak temperatures and lower times above liquidus will reduce both intermetallic
growth but also increase the overall brightness of the solder joints.

63/37 Solder in air SAC Solder in air

Proper training will be required when transitioning to lead-free assembly. Operators will
need to be given quality acceptance criteria for solder joints that will look quite different
from traditional leaded systems.
About the author:

Peter Biocca is Senior Market Development Engineer with Kester in Des Plaines, Illinois.
He is a chemist with 24 years experience in soldering technologies. He has presented
around the world in matters relating to process optimization and assembly.
He has been working with lead-free for over 7 years. He has been involved in numerous
consortia within this time and has assisted many companies implement lead-free
successfully. He is an active member of IPC, SMTA, and ASM. He is the author of many
technical papers delivered globally. He is a Certified SMT Process Engineer.

For further information please contact Peter Biocca at Kester,

telephone 972.390.1197 or via email at [email protected]

Acknowledgements:

OK International, Photos of BGA Optical Inspection and Cosmetic Joint Comparisons.

Bob Willis U.K., Photos BGA with SAC alloy.

Gintic Manufacturing Consortium, Singapore. Lead-free Report.

Kester Des Plaines, Illinois, Applications Laboratory, Photos Paste Slump, Spread Tests.

Voiding: Occurrence and Reliability Issues with Lead-free, Martin Wickham, National
Physical Laboratory, U.K.

Lead-free Electronics, 2004 Edition, Sanka Ganesan; Michael Pecht, Calce Press.