Thermal analysis of selected tin-based lead-free solder alloys

The Sn-Ag-Cu alloys have favourable solderability and wetting properties and are, therefore, being considered as potential lead-free solder materials. In the present study, tin-based Sn-Ag-Cu and Sn-Ag-Cu-Bi alloys were studied in detail by a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermodynamic calculations using the CALPHAD approach. The amount of the alloying elements in the materials was chosen to be close to the respective eutectic composition and the nominal compositions were the following: Sn-3.7Ag-0.7Cu, Sn-1.0Ag-0.5Cu-1Bi (in wt.%). Thermal effects during melting and solidifying were experimentally studied by the DSC technique. The microstructure of the samples was determined by the light microscopy and the composition of solidified phases was obtained by the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, respectively. The solidification behaviour under equilibrium conditions was simulated using the Thermo-Calc software package. This approach enabled us to obtain the enthalpy of cooling for each alloy and to compare its temperature derivative with the experimental DSC curves.