Electromigration Studies of Sn(Cu) and Sn(Ni) Alloy Stripes

Using Blech’s structure, we studied the electromigration (EM) behaviors of four different Sn(Cu) and Sn(Ni) alloys, which are Sn, Sn0.7Cu, Sn3.0Cu, and Sn1Ni. The order of the EM rates was determined to be Sn0.7Cu > Sn > Sn3Cu > Sn1Ni. We believe that the lower yielding strength and higher grain boundary density of Sn0.7Cu were the main reasons that Sn0.7Cu had the fastest EM rate. Moreover, we found that the addition at Ni could effectively retard EM. The critical products of Sn, Sn0.7Cu, and Sn3.0Cu, which were determined to be 1500, 500, and 1580 A/cm, respectively. The diffuse-effective charge (DZ*) values of the solder stripes from this present work have same order magnitude of the reported values, which were measured by using actual solder bumps.