Analysis of low-temperature intermetallic growth in copper-tin diffusion couples

Abstract

A multiphase diffusion model was constructed and used to analyze the growth of the ε- and η-phase intermetallic layers at a plane Cu-Sn interface in a semi-infinite diffusion couple. Experimental measurements of intermetallic layer growth were used to compute the interdiffusivities in theε andη phases and the positions of the interfaces as a function of time. The results suggest that interdiffusion in the ε phase(≈D _ε) is well fit by an Arrhenius expression with D₀ = 5.48 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s andQ = 61.9 kJ/mole, while that in the η phase (≈D_η) has D₀ = 1.84 × 10⁻⁹ m²/s andQ = 53.9 kJ/mole. These values are in reasonable numerical agreement with previous results. The higher interdiffusivity in theη phase has the consequence that theη phase predominates in the intermetallic bilayer. However, the lower activation energy for interdiffusion in theη phase has the result that theε phase fills an increasing fraction of the intermetallic layer at higher temperature: at 20 °C, the predicted ε-phase thickness is ≈10 pct of that ofη, while at 200 °C, its thickness is 66 pct of that ofη. In the absence of a strong Kirkendall effect, the original Cu-Sn interface is located within theη-phase layer after diffusion. It lies near the midpoint of theη-phase layer at higher temperature (220 °C) and, hence, appears to shift toward the Sn side of the couple. The results are compared to experimental observations on intermetallic growth at solder-Cu interfaces.