The reliability of lead-free solder joint subjected to special environment: a review

With the rapid development of electronical products, many primary challenges arise in the field of design and manufacture, among which the property of electronical packaging materials is a crucial factor. Compared with lead-containing solder, the performance of lead-free solder alloy is hardly noticed before but is being concerned recently due to the restriction of lead application, which still could not meet the actual requirement. Moreover, the increasingly severe service conditions of electronical equipment such as specific temperature, high-density current and corrosion, which would result in the degradation of microstructure and property of lead-free solder alloy, have requested a great raise in the reliability of solder joint. Therefore, a great number of studies to enhance the reliability of lead-free solder joint subjected to special environments have been conducted in the last decade and it has been proved that the increasing reliability could be obtained by the addition of element and nanoparticle, as well as the enhanced substrate. In this article, a systematic review of the progress on the reliability investigation of lead-free solder joint is given to try to provide some theoretical support for the further investigation and application of lead-free solder alloy.