Thermomigration in Pb–Sn solder joints under joule heating during electric current stressing

Electromigration of solder joint under high dc current density is known as a reliability concern for the future high-density flip chip packaging and power packaging. Biased mass diffusion within solder joint from cathode to anode under high dc current density is observed in these experiments. In this letter, the experiments on flip chip solder joints under dc current stressing are conducted and thermomigration due to the thermal gradient in the solder joint caused by joule heating is reported. A three-dimensional coupled electric thermal finite-element (FE) simulation of a realistic flip chip module shows the existence of thermal gradient in the solder joint which is high enough to trigger thermomigration.