Ductile-to-brittle transition induced by increasing strain rate in Sn–3Cu/Cu joints

The current study revealed the effects of strain rate on tensile strength and ductile-to-brittle transition of Sn–3Cu/Cu joints in the strain rate range of 4.2 × 10⁻⁵ to 2.4 × 10⁻¹ s⁻¹. Experimental results indicate that these joints broke in a ductile manner at low strain rates with a rapid increase in the tensile strength but displayed a brittle manner at higher strain rates with a slow increase in the tensile strength, indicating a typical ductile-to-brittle transition feature. A method was proposed to estimate the interfacial strength between the solder and the intermetallic compounds.