Reliability comparison between SAC305 joint and sintered nanosilver joint at high temperatures for power electronic packaging

Ratcheting behavior of sintered nanosilver joints was examined by cyclic shearing tests at different temperatures. Fatigue lives of sintered nanosilver joints were compared with those of soldered SAC305 joints. An improved non-contact displacement detecting system combining infrared heating was developed to measure the deformation of the joints. Effects of temperature, mean stress, and stress amplitude on the ratcheting behavior of both kinds of the joints were analyzed. Shear strength of the sintered nanosilver joints is larger than that of the soldered SAC305 ones. The ratcheting displacement and its rate in both kinds of the joints increase with increase in temperature, mean stress, and stress amplitude. The fatigue life of sintered nanosilver joint is much longer than that of soldered SAC305 one under the same loading conditions. It is concluded that sintered nonosilver joint has demonstrated a longer fatigue life and better response to shearing and cyclic loading than SAC305 joint, especially at high temperatures. An improved temperature-dependent modified Goodman model is proposed and is proved to be able to accurately predict the fatigue life of the sintered nanosilver joints and the soldered SAC305 joints by introducing the temperature-dependent fatigue strength exponent and the fatigue strength coefficient. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.