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Effect of (111) oriented nanotwinned Cu substrate on the electromigration of Sn58Bi solder joint at high current density

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Abstract

(111) oriented nanotwinned copper ((111)nt-Cu) has attracted much attention and shown a good application prospect as Under Bump Metallurgy (UBM) in advanced packaging technology, because of its excellent interconnect performance. However, the research on the microstructure evolution of (111)nt-Cu/Sn58Bi solder joint during the Electromigration (EM) process remains to be enriched and in-depth. In this paper, the linear Cu/Sn58Bi/Cu sandwich solder joint structure was adopted to study the Liquid–solid (L-S) EM behaviors of (111)nt-Cu and polycrystalline Cu (C-Cu) substrates under condition of 25 ℃ for 10, 30, 60 and 90 min with the current density of 2 × 104 A/cm2 by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results showed that a polarity effect on the growth of interfacial intermetallic compound (IMC) was observed on both solder joints. The formation of Cu3Sn phase on the anodic side of (111)nt-Cu solder joint could be seen after 60 min energization while only Cu6Sn5 existed on C-Cu solder joint during the whole EM process. The growth rate of interfacial IMCs on the anodic side of (111)nt-Cu solder joint was faster than that on C-Cu solder joint. For example, the average thickness of IMCs on (111)nt-Cu was 164.4 μm at 90 min, which was about 100 μm thicker than that on C-Cu. This phenomenon was related with the grown behavior of Cu3Sn on cathode side. Comparing to C-Cu joint, Cu3Sn on (111)nt-Cu formed rapidly and replaced Cu6Sn5 completely after 30 min EM, but grew slowly after 60 min EM. The diffusion of Cu atoms on (111)nt-Cu was promoted because of the faster diffusion rate of Cu in Cu3Sn or the shorter diffusion distance. More importantly, as the conductance time prolonged, Sn atoms were rapidly consumed, while copper atoms still maintained at a higher concentration level due to the unique grain structure of (111)nt-Cu. Additionally, the faster formation of IMCs accelerated the release of Bi owing to the lower solubility and promoted the occurrence of Bi-rich phase either on the cathode side or the anodic side of (111)nt-Cu solder joint. The above results will provide a deeper understanding and guidance for (111)nt-Cu as UBM in advanced packaging.

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The raw data required to reproduce these findings are available.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (Grant No. 2022B1515120037) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (Grant No. KJZD20230923112800002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212003, China

    Jiaqi Zhang & **ao**g Wang

  2. Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Electronic Materials, Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Jiaqi Zhang, **ngming Huang & Zhi-Quan Liu

  3. Shenzhen Vital New Material Company Limited, Shenzhen, 518116, China

    Weijun Li

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  1. Jiaqi Zhang
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Contributions

Jiaqi Zhang: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing., **ngming Huang & **ao**g Wang: Formal analysis, Writing—review & editing Methodology. Weijun Li: Writing—review & editing. Zhi-Quan Liu: Funding acquisition, Writing—review & editing, Supervision.

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Correspondence to **ao**g Wang or Zhi-Quan Liu.

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Zhang, J., Huang, X., Wang, X. et al. Effect of (111) oriented nanotwinned Cu substrate on the electromigration of Sn58Bi solder joint at high current density. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 1293 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-13082-6

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