Development of lead-free solder alloys of the Ge doped Sn-Ag-Bi system

Abstract

Environmental concerns have led the authors to develop a lead-free solder. Their observation that a small amount of Ge drastically improves solderability and reliability of SnAg alloys resulted in the development of a novel lead-free solder alloys with a composition of Sn-20Ag-4.0Bi-0.5Cu-0.1Ge. They also confirmed that the developed solder was usable in conventional soldering machines without changing operational conditions.