The surface finish (SF) becomes a part of the solder joint during assembly and improves the component’s reliability. Furthermore, the SF influences the solder joint’s reliability by affecting the thickness of the intermetallic compound (IMC) layer at the solder interface and copper pads. In this experiment, five different alloys are used and compared with the SAC305 alloy, two of which, Innolot and SAC-Bi, are bi-based solder alloys. This study includes three common SFs: electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG), immersion silver (ImAg), and organic solderability preserve (OSP). The performance of three surface finishes is examined in terms of component characteristic life. All of the boards were isothermally aged for twelve months at 125 °C. The boards were then exposed to 5000 cycles of thermal cycling at temperatures ranging from −40–+125 °C. Most of the current research considers only one or two factors affecting the reliability of the electronic package. This study combines the effect of multiple factors, including solder paste content, SF, isothermal aging, and thermal cycling, to ensure that the test conditions represent real-world applications. In addition, the electronics packages are assembled using commercialized alloys. The current study focuses on a high-performance alloy already present in the electronic market. The failure data were analyzed statistically using the Weibull distribution and design of experiments (DOE) analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques. The findings reveal that the micro and uniformly distributed precipitates in solder microstructures are critical for high-reliability solder joints. Re-crystallization of the thermally cycled solder joints promotes the local formation of numerous new grains in stress-concentrated zones. As the fracture spreads along these grain boundaries and eventually fails, these new grains participate in crack propagation. Aging significantly worsens this situation. Finally, although the ENIG surface finish with its Ni layer outperforms other SFs, this does not imply that ENIG is more reliable in all solder paste/sphere/finish combinations.

This study illustrates test results and comparative literature data on the influence of isothermal aging and thermal cycling associated with Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC105) and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu (SAC305) ball grid array (BGA) solder joints finished with ENIG and ENEPIG on the board side and ENIG on the package side compared with ImAg plating on both sides. The resulting degradation data suggests that the main concern for 0.4 mm pitch 10 mm package size BGA is package side surface finish, not board side. That is, ENIG performs better than immersion Ag for applications involving long-term isothermal aging. SAC305, with a higher relative fraction of Ag₃Sn IMC within the solder, performs better than SAC105. SEM and polarized light microscope analysis show cracks propagated from the corners to the center or even to solder bulk, which eventually causes fatigue failure. Three factors are discussed: IMC, grain structure, and Ag₃Sn particle. The continuous growth of Cu-Sn intermetallic compounds (IMC) and grains increase the risk of failure, while Ag₃Sn particles seem helpful in blocking the crack propagation.