Abstract: A plastic strain energy density methodology is proposed to evaluate the initiation and propagation of fatigue crack in lead-free solder joints. The relationships among the plastic strain, plastic strain energy, continuum damage mechanics(CDM) and fatigue life are clarified. Crack growth correlation constants for micro-scale ball grid array(BGA) structure solder joints(with standoff height h in the range 100 to 500 μm and a pad diameter 480 μm) are determined by a combination of experimental estimation and numerical calculation. The results show that the cycle numbers of crack initiation and propagation have power function relationship with the plastic strain energy density generated in each fatigue cycle. Crack propagation rate is affected by stress triaxiality, which is dependent on loading modes, i.e., stress triaxiality increases dramatically with decreasing h under tensile load because of the mechanical constraint effect arising from interfaces and package structure, while under shear load the standoff height has very limited effect on stress triaxiality. Furthermore, crack growth correlation constants identified in solder joints with h=100 μm can be well used to predict fatigue life of solder joints with different geometries, indicating that the fatigue life prediction method proposed in this study can effectively prevent the influence of plastic strain energy concentration caused by structural and volume factors on the prediction of fatigue life of BGA structure solder joints.

Key words: ball grid array, damage mechanics, fatigue life, lead-free solder joint, low cycle fatigue