Materials

Materials Examples

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is a powerful tool used in materials analysis. SEM can be used for determining chemical composition, analyzing surface morphology, examining grain structure, or identifying impurities in materials.

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Solderability issue — A solderability issue in a flex circuit. Surface shows oxidized intermetallic compound.

Explosively bonded metals — Explosively bonded aluminum-steel material. (Sample courtesy of High Energy Metals, Sequim, WA)

Solder failure analysis — BGA failure due to organic particles on solder bumps. These were also found included in solder joints on finished assemblies.

Contamination — Using SEM analysis to determine that the contaminant on a paper product is potassium chloride.

Pb dendrite — Pb-dendrite formed by electromigration on the surface of the flux residue.

Fatigue striations — Fatigue striations on the fracture surface of a stainless steel spring.

Corrosion problem causing gold plating to flake off.

Solder microstructure

BGA failure — Ball Grid Array (BGA) solder joint failure analysis.

SEM image of a ceramic sample.

This is a dielectric void in a base metal electrode (BME) multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC).

HDI micro-via quality evaluation.

SEM image of cashmere with measurement.