Electrochemical corrosion behaviour of Bi–11Ag alloy for electronic packaging applications

Abstract This study investigated the electrochemical corrosion properties of the solders for die-attach applications in 3.5% NaCl solution. Compared with Pb–5Sn and Zn–40Sn, Bi–11Ag exhibited higher corrosion potential and relatively low corrosion current density. The ductile Ag-rich phase which dispersed in the Bi matrix was able to accommodate the stress arising from the formation of a passive layer and contributed to the two-stage passivation. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) results confirm that the corrosion products comprised BiOCl, Bi 2 O 3 and AgCl.