Low Cycle Fatigue Test of Lead Free Solders Using Small Sized Specimen

This paper investigates the fatigue results in low cycle fatigue region obtained from a miniaturized specimen having a 6mm gage length, 3mm diameter and 55mm total length. Fatigue tests were performed for two type lead-free solders using horizontal-type electrical servo hydraulic push-pull fatigue testing machine. Materials employed were Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu and Sn-5Sb. The results from Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu were compared with those obtained using a bulk specimen in a previous study. Relationship between strain range and number of cycles to failure of the small-sized specimen agreed with those of the bulk specimens. The testing techniques are applicable to Sn-5Sb following the Manson-Coffin law. These results confirm that the testing technique proposed here, using small-sized specimen, is suitable to get fruitful fatigue data for lead-free solder compounds.