Mechanical strength test method for solder ball joint in BGA package

Ball shear tests were investigated in terms of effects of test parameters, i.e. shear height and shear speed, with an experimental and non-linear finite element analysis in order to evaluate the solder joint integrity of area array packages. The substrate was a common SMD type with solder bond pad openings of 460 μm in diameter. Microstructural investigations were carried out using SEM, and the IMCs were identified with EDS. It was observed that increasing shear height, at fixed shear speed, results in decreasing shear force, while the shear force increased with increasing shear speed at fixed shear height. Excessive shear height could cause some detrimental effects on the test results such as unexpected high standard deviation values or shear tip sliding from the solder ball surface. Low shear height conditions are favorable for screening the type of brittle interfacial fractures or degraded layers in the interfaces.