Materials Chemistry and Physics 136 (2012) 985e989

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Materials Chemistry and Physics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys

Abnormal accumulation and rotation of Sn in Cu-cored Sn solder joints under

current stressing
Wenkai Mu a, b, Wei Zhou a, b, Baoling Li a, b, Ping Wu a, b, *
a
b

Department of Applied Physics, Institute of Advanced Materials Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, Peoples Republic of China
Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, Peoples Republic of China

h i g h l i g h t s
< The electromigration behavior of Cu-cored Sn solder joint was investigated.
< The Cu core acted as additional electrodes.
< Current crowding occurred at the two Cu core and Cu wire interfaces.
< Current crowding induced abnormal accumulation and rotation of Sn.
< Intermetallic compound growth was inhibited by the additional Cu core.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 2 May 2012
Received in revised form
26 July 2012
Accepted 20 August 2012

The electromigration behavior of Cu-cored Sn solder joints under a current density of 1.3
104 A cm2
was investigated in this work. Finite element simulation was performed to obtain the distribution of the
current density in the solder joint. The Cu core was chosen primarily as the path for current ux, as it has
a lower resistivity than Sn. It is found that most morphology changes appeared at the regions where
current crowding occurred, demonstrating the consistency of the experimental and simulation results.
Taking the special structure into consideration, the Cu core contributed additional electrodes to the
solder joint at the interfaces, resulting in abnormal accumulation and rotation of Sn at both the cathode
and the anode. The IMC growth was quite slow in the Cu-cored solder joint.
2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Electronic materials
Finite element analysis
Electrical properties
Diffusion

1. Introduction
In modern microelectronic industry, ball-grid-array (BGA)
packaging is adopted as a signicant packaging technology due to
its capability of providing higher input and output (I/O) density as
well as higher reliability. In BGA packaging, solder balls are applied
to connect the module chips and the substrates, offering both
electrical path and mechanical support. However, the height and
coplanarity are hard to control when the solder balls melt during
reow process, as the size of solder balls is very small. What is
more, the mechanical strength of the BGA interconnects was reported to be weakened after excessive thermal annealing and
cycling [1e4], resulting in a short lifetime. The Cu-cored solder balls

* Corresponding author. Department of Applied Physics, Institute of Advanced

Materials Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, Peoples
Republic of China. Tel.: 86 22 27408599.
E-mail address: pingwu@tju.edu.cn (P. Wu).
0254-0584/$ e see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2012.08.037

were rstly proposed by IBM to provide stand-off capability in

microelectronic packaging [5]. Due to its relatively high melting
temperature, the Cu core can stay solid during soldering, acting as
a spacer between the two sides of the interconnect. The height
between the chips and the substrate thus can be controlled at least
higher than the diameter of the Cu core. Accordingly, the Cu-cored
solder joints are supposed to provide better mechanical reliability
than the conventional ones since the collapse behavior of the solder
joints can be avoided.
Recently, the Cu-cored solder balls have recalled peoples
attention owing to its prominent properties which can contribute
to highly reliable connections. Firstly, since the height and coplanarity can be accurately controlled with the Cu core, the strain and
strain variation generated by the nonuniform solders will decrease.
Secondly, the solder deformation can be reduced because the Cu
core is harder than the Sn-based alloys. Thirdly, the Cu-cored solder
balls can offer higher electrical and thermal conductivity than the
traditional ones, which improves the working condition of the
chips. Finally, the Cu-cored solder joints are anticipated to provide

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W. Mu et al. / Materials Chemistry and Physics 136 (2012) 985e989

better electromigration (EM) resistance, as the Cu core can reduce

the Cu diffusing from the Cu wires to the Sn matrix [6]. Tanie et al.
reported that the fracture life of the Cu-cored solder joints under
thermal cycling was longer than the conventional ones due to the
crack-path scattering [7]. Chen et al. have investigated the interfacial reactions and mechanical properties of the Cu-cored solder
balls [8]. They indicated that the intermetallic compound (IMC)
growth slowed down with larger Cu core sizes and the mechanical
strength of the Cu-cored solder balls was better than that of the
monolithic solder joints. In addition, Wang et al. found that Curich-cored SneBi solders balls formed under certain situation by
gas atomization, making the manufacture process of the Cu-cored
solder balls easier [9]. However, the studies about the Cu-cored
solder joint are very limited in spite of its outstanding properties
[10e16].
As we all know, EM is a mass transportation behavior driven by
electrons and it can cause some kinds of damages to the solder
joints, such as void nucleation and expansion at the cathode side,
and hillock or whisker formation at the anode side. The situation of
EM becomes more severe since the current density in the solder
joints has reached the scale of 1
104 A cm2, which is almost the
threshold value of EM [17]. Since EM is such an important reliability
issue and the current distribution may be affected by the additional
Cu core, the microstructure evolution before and after current
stressing of the Cu-cored Sn solder joint were investigated in this
research.
2. Experimental
Cu-cored Sn solder joints were prepared by wrapping Cu balls
with melted Sn solders during soldering. Sn and Cu solder balls,
with the diameter of 300 mm and 250 mm respectively, were
prepared by uniform droplet spray process. Since thermomigration
has a very prominent impact on solder joints as well, line-type Cu/
solder/Cu was applied to avoid the thermal gradient caused by the
discrepancy of electrical resistivity, thermal capacity and structure
between the anode and the cathode. Cu wires with the diameter of
350 mm were cut and polished at the two ends before soldering. To
fabricate the samples, the V-groove method proposed by Tu et al.
[18] was applied in this work. A line-type Cu-wire//Sn-ball/Cu-ball/
Sn-ball//Cu-wire sample was placed in a V-groove as shown in
Fig. 1. Then the sample was laid on a hot plate and soldered at
280  C for 60 s. During the soldering process, Sn solder balls melted,
wrapped the Cu core and connected the Cu wires with the assistance of solder paste. By changing the size of the Sn ball, the Sn

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the line-type sample preparation.

layer thickness on the Cu core can be controlled. Then the Cu-cored

Sn solder joint was taken out of the V-groove by ultrasonic vibration and cleaned in acetone and alcohol. In order to observe the
microstructure evolution conveniently, the sample was ground and
polished to the diameter of the Cu core. After that, the polished
sample was current stressed with a direct current of 6.3 A (the
current density is about 1.3
104 A cm2) for 280 h. The microstructure of the interconnect before and after current stressing was
examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and the
chemical compositions of the IMC as well as the phases were
identied by an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX).
3. Results and discussion
The cross-section microstructure of the as-soldered interconnect is shown in Fig. 2(a). Scallop-type IMC layer with an average
thickness of 2.0 mm, which was determined to be Cu6Sn5, can be
found at both the Cu-core/Sn and Cu-wire/Sn interfaces as shown in
Fig. 2(b). As Cu was consumed to form CueSn IMC, it is reasonable
to nd that the interfaces of the Cu core and the Cu wires were
lumpy.
The SEM image of the solder joint after 280 h of current
stressing is shown in Fig. 3. It is obvious that the most signicant
microstructure changes of the solder joint concentrated at the
interfaces between the Cu core and the Cu wires. As is known to all,
atoms would be driven by the electrons from the cathode to the
anode under current stressing, resulting in the atoms reduction at
the cathode and accumulation at the anode. Voids and hillocks thus
may appear at the cathode and the anode respectively [19e22].

Fig. 2. SEM images of the as-soldered Cu-cored Sn interconnect: (a) Cross-section of

the interconnect; (b) The interfaces between the Cu core and the Cu wire.

W. Mu et al. / Materials Chemistry and Physics 136 (2012) 985e989

Fig. 3. SEM image of the Cu-cored Sn solder joint after 280 h of current stressing.

However, abnormal accumulation, which differed from the polarity

effect, was observed that Sn was squeezed out at both the anode
and the cathode in the Cu-cored Sn solder joint.
In order to get a better understanding of the EM behavior, threedimensional nite element simulation was performed to obtain the
current distribution in the solder joint, as shown in Fig. 4. A current
density of about 1.3
104 A cm2 is powered through the sample in
the simulation. Obviously, current crowding occurs at the two
interfaces between the Cu core and the Cu wires. The current
density at region A and B is about 3.4
104 A cm2, which is 14
times higher than that at region C and D while 2.6 times higher
than the average current density. Since the resistivity of Cu is
almost one order of magnitude lower than that of Sn, the electrical
current will primarily choose the Cu core as the owing path rather
than the Sn matrix. So when entering the solder, the electrical
current will head to and concentrate at the Cu core, making A and B
the current crowding areas. Current crowding in these areas is

Fig. 4. Current density distribution in the Cu-cored Sn solder joint (the resistivity of
Cu, Sn and Cu6Sn5 is 1.7 mU cm, 11 mU cm and 18 mU cm, respectively).

987

supposed to bring more severe EM effect, which is consistent with

the experimental results in Fig. 3. Compared with traditional solder
joints, the current crowding areas move from the edge of the Cu/Sn
interfaces to the middle of the Cu core and the Cu wire interfaces in
Cu-cored solder joints. Since void nucleation and expansion must
be harder at the middle than at the edge of the interface, the EM
reliability of Cu-cored solder joint is expected be higher.
The SEM images of the interfaces between the Cu core and the
Cu wires at both the anode (the left column) and the cathode (the
right column) under current stressing for 20 h, 40 h, 139 h and
268 h are shown in Fig. 5. Surface coarsening was rstly observed
after 20 h of current stressing. The grooves of the coarse surface
seemed like the outlines of Sn grains. Interestingly, with prolonging
the stressing time, Sn was squeezed out and covered the IMC layer
at both the anode and the cathode at the inner regions of the
interfaces between the Cu core and the Cu wires. The red rectangles
(in the web version) were drawn to be position references and lay
emphasis on the Sn grains inside. It can be seen that the Sn grains in
the rectangles were extruded from the free surface after 40 h of
current stressing. With increasing the time to 139 h, the Sn grain at
the cathode continued moving and rotating while the Sn grain at
the anode stopped rolling. When the time reached 268 h, the
rotation of the Sn grain in the rectangle at the cathode was so
prominent that it nearly peeled off from the solder. At both the
anode and the cathode, some new grooves appeared and deepened
as a result of grain rotation.
Fig. 6 shows the cross-section SEM images of the anode and the
cathode after 280 h of current stressing with a wider visual eld.
Abnormal accumulation and rotation of Sn at both the anode and
the cathode were investigated. Considering the additional Cu core
and the distribution of the current density in the solder joint, the
two sides of the Cu core acted as additional anode and cathode.
Therefore, there appeared two couples of electrodes. At the
cathode, Sn atoms were driven by the electrons to move toward the
Cu core, while at the anode, Sn atoms were forced to migrate to the
Cu wire. According to the simulation results, current crowding
occurred at the two interfaces between the Cu core and the Cu
wires, which meant more serious EM effect. Therefore, it is quite
reasonable that relatively high compressive stress was generated
along the Cu-core/Sn and the Cu-wire/Sn interfaces at the cathode
and the anode respectively. So it is actually a classic polarity effect
that Sn was squeezed out and rotated along the Cu wire and the Cu
core, i.e., the two anodes in Fig. 6(a) and (b) respectively.
The grain rotation phenomena in anisotropic conduction b-tin
strips have been reported by Wu previously [23,24]. The divergence
of vacancy concentration at the grain boundaries caused by
anisotropy can generate a torque, thus leading to Sn grain rotation.
Not only in solder strips, but grain rotation was also observed by Tu
[25] and Zhu [26] in bulk solder joints. Compared with Tu and Zhus
results, the grain rotation in this paper, which is estimated to be
larger than 30 , is more prominent as shown in the rectangle in
Fig. 5(h). This indicates that the torque generated by the divergence
of vacancy concentration was not the main reason for grain rotation
in this work. Since current crowding occurred at these areas,
volume expansion induced by joule effect must be very prominent.
Therefore, besides the compressive stress that generated by the EM
effect, additional stress induced by the mismatch of the expansion
coefcient also formed adjacent to the IMC. Furthermore, the
stresses composed of Sn accumulation and IMC expansion, which
were not equivalent both on direction and magnitude, were
imposed on the two sides of the grain. Accordingly, a torque was
generated as shown in the schematic diagram of Fig. 7. As a result,
the grain was extruded from the free surface of the solder joint and
rotated under the torque. Compared with traditional solder joints,
the more limited space between the Cu core and the Cu wire in Cu-

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W. Mu et al. / Materials Chemistry and Physics 136 (2012) 985e989

Fig. 5. SEM images of the anode (the left column) and the cathode (the right column) after current stressing for (a) (b) 20 h; (c) (d) 40 h; (e) (f) 139 h and (g) (h) 268 h.

cored solder not only accelerated the stress generation but also
prohibited the stress from releasing inside the cross-section
surface. Thus it is reasonable that grain rotation is more serious
in Cu-cored solder joints, especially in the region between the Cu

core and the Cu wire. Meanwhile, irregular Sn were squeezed out of

the free surface at the inner regions between the Cu core and the Cu
wires, as there is no enough space for one grain to be extruded from
the matrix.

Fig. 6. SEM images of the Cu-cored Sn interconnect after current stressing for 280 h: (a) the anode side; (b) the cathode side.

W. Mu et al. / Materials Chemistry and Physics 136 (2012) 985e989

989

obtained by nite element simulation. Since Cu has a lower resistivity, the electrical ux preferred to ow though the Cu core rather
than the Sn matrix, resulting in current crowding at the interfaces
between the Cu core and the Cu wires, where most microstructure
changes occurred. Considering the inner Cu core and the current
distribution, two couples of electrodes composed of the Cu core and
the Cu wires formed at the two sides of the solder joint. Sn atoms
were driven by the electrons toward the Cu core at the cathode and
the Cu wire at the anode respectively, consequently leading to the
Sn atoms accumulation and compressive stress generation. In
addition, the IMC expanded as a result of thermal effect, producing
another compressive stress. The two kinds of stress, which imposed
on the two sides of the Sn grain, generated a torque and nally
caused the Sn grain rotation. Irregular Sn was squeezed out of the
free surface at the inner regions of the interfaces owing to the
restricted space between the Cu core and the Cu wire. The IMC
growth was slowed down in the Cu-cored solder joint.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (51074112), the Key
Program of Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (11JCZDJC22100),
the Key Laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Machining Technology of Ministry of Education (ACMT-2010-01, Tianjin
University).
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of Sn grain rotation under current stressing.

References
Zhou et al. reported that prominent polarity effect was observed
in line-type Cu/Sn/Cu interconnect under current stressing, where
the IMC at the anode was thicker than at the cathode [27].
Compared with Zhous results, the IMC growth was slower in this
research, where the IMC thickness only increased 0.7 mm after 20 h
of current stressing. There are two possible reasons for the low IMC
growth rate in Cu-cored solder: Firstly, Cu electromigration was
weakened by the back stress. As mentioned above, Sn atoms
accumulated along the Cu core at the cathode and the Cu wire at
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the distances between the Cu core and the Cu wires were more
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Consequently, Cu atoms would be driven by the large back stress
gradient in the opposite direction to electromigration. Secondly, Cu
electromigration was also reduced by Cu thermomigration. As can
be seen from Fig. 4, the current density in regions C, D and the
adjacent light blue Sn layer is smaller than the other regions, which
will result in lower temperature according to the joule effect. Since
it is reported that Cu atoms will be driven from the hot end to the
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joints are still unclear and need to be further studied.
4. Conclusions
The EM effect of a Cu-cored Sn solder joint was investigated in
this work and the current distribution in the solder joint was

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