Abstract:

With the transition to lead-free materials in the electronics industry there is a need to understand the impact of the solder material on flex cracking of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). An experimental study was conducted to study susceptibility to flex cracking of MLCCs, in which a comparison was made between identical samples which were assembled using either lead-free (Sn3.0Ag0.5Cu) or eutectic tin-lead (Sn37Pb) solder. Flex testing was performed on MLCCs with different sizes (1812 and 0805) and different dielectric materials (C0G and X7R) obtained from three different manufacturers. Experimental results showed that MLCCs mounted on printed circuit boards with lead-free solder are less susceptible to flex cracking compared with MLCCs mounted on boards with eutectic tin-lead solder. Results of flex tests for MLCCs with C0G dielectric showed that they are more resistant to flex cracking than MLCCs with X7R dielectric.

Complete article is available to CALCE Consortium Members.

© IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.