Experimental investigation on the degradation of BGA solder ball shear strength due to room temperature aging

The present study is an experimental investigation on the solder ball reliability of plastic ball grid array (PBGA) packages. Efforts are made to identify the room temperature aging effect on the degradation of solder ball shear strength. The samples are standard PBGA packages with 63Sn-37Pb eutectic solder balls. The specimens are subject to various lengths of room temperature aging after the reflow. After the designated aging period, ball shear tests are conducted to evaluate the solder ball shear strength. The experimental results show that the solder ball shear strength may drop by 10% within three days of room temperature aging. The outcome of the present study leads to a general guideline for the scheduling of solder ball shear tests. As a result, meaningful comparisons of PBGA solder ball shear strength may be achieved.