Abstract
The present study was undertaken to investigate the influence of aging temperature on the creep behaviour of Sn–Ag and Sn–Ag–Bi solder alloys at testing temperatures ranging from 333 to 363 K under constant stress of 7·80 MPa. The steady state creep rate was found to increase continuously with increasing aging temperature at all testing temperatures. Results show that addition of Bi to the binary Sn–Ag solder alloy led to a significant increase in the strength and improvement in the creep resistance. The activation energy for the creep process of Sn–Ag and Sn–Ag–Bi solder alloys was found to have an average value of 36 and 45 kJ mol−1 respectively. This might be characterised by diffusion of Ag in Sn. The microstructure of the aged samples for both alloys examined by X-ray diffraction measurements supported the improvement in the creep resistance for Sn–Ag alloy by adding a small trace of Bi.
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