Heterogeneous Intragranular Inelastic Behavior of a Sn-Ag-Cu Alloy.

To study the intragranular mechanical behavior of a Sn-Ag-Cu solder, a focused ion beam system was used to manufacture a notched microspecimen at a eutectic area within a grain. A low-speed tensile test was performed on the microspecimen using an Instron 5848 microtester at room temperature. The results show that, besides an obvious shearing deformation, a large number of subgrains are formed in the β-Sn matrix. Subgrain boundaries are composed of a large number of dislocations. Besides the heterogeneous deformation due to the notch, Ag₃Sn intermetallic compounds influence the evolution path of subgrain boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]