Effects of Voids on Thermal Fatigue Reliability of Solder Joints on Inner Rings in Ball Grid Array Packaging by Finite Element Analysis

Under alternating temperatures, the fatigue failure of solder balls caused by the mismatch of the thermal expansion coefficient is a key problem in a Ball Grid Array (BGA). However, the combined effects of the solder ball location and the size of voids within it can seriously affect the thermal fatigue reliability of BGA solder balls, which can be easily ignored by researchers. Firstly, the thermal fatigue reliability of the board-level solder balls was evaluated by a temperature cycling test of the BGA package at −20 °C–+125 °C. The experimental results showed that the thermal fatigue reliability of the outer ring’s solder joint was lower than that of the inner ring. Secondly, the reliability of the solder balls in the BGA package was studied under the same thermal cycling condition based on finite element analysis (FEA). The influences of voids on fatigue life were investigated. Generally, a linear correlation between the void content and the fatigue life of the inner rings’ solder balls could be identified with a gradually smoothed relationship for solder balls closer to the center. In addition, when the size of the void exceeded a critical volume, the inner ring’s solder ball with the void would fail before the outermost ring. The results of FEA showed that the critical void volume ratio from the second to fifth ring increased from 10.5% to 42.3%. This study provides a valuable reference for the influence of voids on the thermal fatigue reliability of BGA solder balls.