Failures in Soldering

Due to the recent requirement of higher integration density, solder joints are getting smaller in electronic product assemblies, which makes the joints more vulnerable to failure. Thus, the root-cause failure analysis for the solder joints becomes important to prevent failure at the assembly level. This article covers the properties of solder alloys and the corresponding intermetallic compounds. It includes the dominant failure modes introduced during the solder joint manufacturing process and in field-use applications. The corresponding failure mechanism and root-cause analysis are also presented. The article introduces several frequently used methods for solder joint failure detection, prevention, and isolation (identification for the failed location).