Investigation of Joule heating effect in various stages of electromigration in flip-chip solder joints by infrared microscopy

The Joule heating effect at various stages under electromigration of flip-chip Sn3.5Ag solder joints was investigated under a current of 0.5 A at 100°C. During various stages of electromigration, voids may form and propagate and Joule heating effect may vary at different void sizes. To verify the void nucleation and propagation on Joule heating effect during electromigration process, the solder bump was stressed for different lengths of time and then examined by Kelvin bump probes and infrared microscopy. We found that voids started to form at approximately 1.2 times of the initial bump resistance. Then the voids propagated when the bump resistance increased. In addition, the temperature of the solder joints increased with the bump resistance and the increase of current stressing time. It increased very slowly in initial stages. In the last stage, the temperature of the solder bump increased rapidly due to the increase of the bump resistance and the local Joule heating effect.