Reliability assessments of BGA solder joints under cyclic bending loads

Mobile products, such as cellular phones, PDA and notebook, are subjected to many different mechanical loads, which include bending, twisting, impact shock and vibration. In this study, a cyclic bending test of the BGA package was performed to evaluate the fatigue life. Special bending tester, which was suitable for electronic package, was developed using an electromagnetic actuator. A nonlinear finite element model was used to simulate the mechanical bending deformation of solder joint in BGA packages. The fatigue life of lead-free (95.5Sn4.0Ag0.5Cu) solder joints was compared with that of lead-contained (63Sn37Pb). When the applied load to the specimen is small, the lead-free solder has longer fatigue life than lead-contained solder.