Effect of Ni on reactive diffusion between Au and Sn at solid-state temperatures

Influence of Ni on the kinetics of the reactive diffusion between Au and Sn was experimentally studied at solid-state temperatures. Binary Sn–Ni alloys with Ni concentrations of 1, 3 and 5 mass% were used to prepare sandwich (Sn–Ni)/Au/(Sn–Ni) diffusion couples by a diffusion bonding technique. The diffusion couples were isothermally annealed at temperatures of T = 433, 453 and 473 K for various times in an oil bath with silicone oil. After annealing, AuNiSn8, AuSn4, AuSn2 and AuSn compound layers were observed to form at the (Sn–Ni)/Au interface in the diffusion couple. The total thickness l of the compound layers monotonically increases with increasing annealing time t according to the equation l = k(t/t0)n, where t0 is unit time, 1 s. The exponent takes values between n = 0.29 and 0.37 under the present annealing conditions. Such values of n < 0.5 indicate that the grain boundary diffusion contributes to the rate-controlling process and the grain growth occurs at certain rates. The higher the Ni concentration of the Sn–Ni alloy is, the faster the overall growth of the compound layers occurs. This means that Ni is an accelerator for the reactive diffusion between Au and Sn at solid-state temperatures. The acceleration effect of Ni becomes more remarkable at higher annealing temperatures. Such influence of Ni on the kinetics is mainly attributed to the dependencies of the growth rate of the AuNiSn8 layer on the composition of the Sn–Ni alloy and the annealing temperature.