This paper studies and compares the effects of pull-pull and 3-point bending cyclic loadings on the mechanical fa- tigue damage behaviors of a solder joint in a surface-mount electronic package. The comparisons are based on experimental investigations using scanning electron microscopy （SEM） in-situ technology and nonlinear finite element modeling, respec- tively. The compared results indicate that there are different threshold levels of plastic strain for the initial damage of solder joints under two cyclic applied loads; meanwhile, fatigue crack initiation occurs at different locations, and the accumulation of equivalent plastic strain determines the trend and direction of fatigue crack propagation. In addition, simulation results of the fatigue damage process of solder joints considering a constitutive model of damage initiation criteria for ductile materials and damage evolution based on accumulating inelastic hysteresis energy are identical to the experimental results. The actual fatigue life of the solder joint is almost the same and demonstrates that the FE modeling used in this study can provide an accurate prediction of solder joint fatigue failure.
High density packaging is developing toward miniaturization and integration, which causes many difficulties in designing, manufacturing, and reliability testing. Package-on-Package （POP） is a promising three-dimensional high- density packaging method that integrates a chip scale package （CSP） in the top package and a fine-pitch ball grid array （FBGA） in the bottom package. In this paper, in-situ scanning electron microscopy （SEM） observation is carried out to detect the deformation and damage of the PoP structure under three-point bending loading. The results indicate that the cracks occur in the die of the top package, then cause the crack deflection and bridging in the die attaching layer. Furthermore, the mechanical principles are used to analyse the cracking process of the PoP structure based on the multi-layer laminating hypothesis and the theoretical analysis results are found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.
Fatigue cracking tests of a solder joint were carried out using in-situ scanning electron microscopy （SEM） technology under tensile and bending cyclic loadings. The method for predicting the fatigue life is provided based on the fatigue crack growth rate of the solder joint. The results show that the effect of the loading type on the fatigue crack growth behavior of a solder joint cannot be ignored. In addition, the finite element analysis results help quantitatively estimate the response relationship between solder joint structures. The fatigue crack initiation life of a solder joint is in good agreement with the fatigue life （N50%） of a totally electronic board with 36 solder joints.
