The Effect of Silicon Nitride Addition on Microstructure and Microhardness of SN100C Solder Alloy Using Powder Metallurgy Mohd IzrulIzwan Ramli 1, a , Norainiza Saud 1, b , Mohd ArifAnuar Mohd Salleh 1, c , Mohd NazreeDerman 1 ,Rita Mohd Said 1 and NorhayantiNasir 1 , 1 Center of Excellence Geopolymer& Green Technology (CeGeoGTech), School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), Taman Muhibbah, 02600 Jejawi, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia E-mail: a mohdizrulizwan@gmail.com, b norainiza@unimap.com, c arifanuarsalleh@gmail.com Keywords: Lead-Free; Composite solder; Silicon Nitride; Powder Metallurgy; SN100C Abstract. The effect of Si 3 N 4 particulate addition on the commercial SN100C solder alloy has been investigated. The SN100C/Si 3 N 4 composite solder was fabricated via powder metallurgy (PM) technique. In this study five different Si 3 N 4 composition which have been chosen were (0 wt. %, 0.25 wt. %, 0.5 wt. %, 0.75 wt. %, and 1.0 wt. %).The results showed that Si 3 N 4 particulate has remain as foreign particles and precipitate at the grain boundaries thus improved the physical properties of the composite solder compared to monolithic solder alloy. The addition of 1.0 wt. % Si 3 N 4 give highest hardness value to the composite solder. Introduction As a joining material, solder has been extensively used in the electronic industry, such as in the multi-function of the electronic devices especially in the portable devices; cellular phones, digital cameras, and MP4 players[1].Nowadays the electronic devices have become thinner and smaller while their function are becoming more complicated. The miniaturization of these electronic devices will demands better solder-joint performance and the potentially available method enhancing solder joint [2].Therefore, some attractive and potentially available methods of enhancing solder joint performances are adopted by adding reinforcements to solder alloys, to form composite solders[3]. Recently, there are many lead-free solders have been developed and has been a proposed candidates to address the environmental concern such as Sn–Ag–Cu, Sn–Cu and Sn–Ag[4, 5]. With the increasing cost of silver in the international market, solder manufacturers are actively looking into lead-free solders that do not contain silver, making the Sn–Cu system one of the targeted choice[6]. The potential Sn-0.7Cu solder has recently gained researchers’ attention because of its availability and low production cost. However, Sn-0.7Cu solder has been discovered to suffer from poor fluidity at soldering temperatures. A small amount of nickel and germanium into SnCu solder has been found to improve the solderability of SnCu alloy and this formulation has been patented under the name SN100C by Nihon Superior Co. Ltd. Therefore, SN100C has been chosen as a matrix based alloy for composite solder. Numerous studies have revealed that the additions of certain particles into conventional solder to form a kind of composite solder has improved the mechanical property as compared to non-composite solder[7].Due to high demands for better solder-joint performance of composite solder, a viable way to enhance the performance of a solder (in terms of mechanical, electrical and thermal properties) is by introducing ceramic particle into solder matrix [8].This solder’s reliability could be enhanced using a high mechanical property reinforcement such as silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ). Si 3 N 4 is an advance ceramic that currently much interest because of it excellent mechanical performance at elevated temperature. Moreover Si 3 N 4 has a quite low coefficient of thermal expansion that better for composite solders. Apart from that, a ceramic reinforcement on the Sn-Ag-Cu solder of substrate has been developed by S.M.L. Nai et al.[8] by using titanium diboride (TiB 2 ) and multi Materials Science Forum Vol. 803 (2015) pp 228-232 © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.803.228 All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of TTP, www.ttp.net. (ID: 58.27.57.125-19/08/14,07:44:16)