Investigation of Elevated Temperature Mechanical Properties of Intermetallic Compounds in the Cu–Sn System Using Nanoindentation

Abstract In electronic packaging, most researchers are mainly focused on the mechanical properties of Cu–Sn intermetallic compounds (IMCs) at room temperature; few studies have looked into the relationship between hardness, elastic modulus, and plasticity of IMCs and elevated temperature. The hardness, elastic modulus, and plasticity of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn at 25–200 °C are investigated by the nanoindentation method. The results show that the hardnesses of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn obey linear attenuation law with elevated temperature. The hardness of Cu6Sn5 is more sensitive to temperature than that of Cu3Sn. This is due to the fact that the melting point of Cu6Sn5 (415 °C) is lower than that of Cu3Sn (670 °C), Cu6Sn5 has a lower normalization temperature than that of Cu3Sn. The elastic modulus of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn and temperature have a parabolic law at 25–200 °C. The elastic modulus of Cu6Sn5 is more sensitive to temperature. This is attributed to the fact that the lattice structure of Cu6Sn5 is changed from hexagonal lattice to monoclinic lattice, causing its volume to expand, thereby making it more sensitive to temperature. The plasticity factors of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn meet the polynomial relationship with elevated temperature. The plasticity factors of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn increase with increasing temperature, which will reduce the resistance to plastic deformation. This is attributed to the fact that the vacancy generated into the material is conducive to the dislocation movement, the dislocation movement will be more active so that the plasticity factors of Cu6Sn5 and Cu3Sn gradually increase.