Solder Wire

Product Details

Solder is a fusible metal alloy used to join together metal work pieces and having a melting point below thatof the work piece.Soft solder is what is most often thought of when solder or soldering is mentioned and ittypically has a melting range of 90 to 450 °C (190 to 840 °F). It is commonly used in electronics andplumbing. Alloys that melt between 180 and 190 °C (360 and 370 °F) are the most commonly used. Bydefinition, using alloys with melting point above 450 °C (840 °F) is called 'hard soldering', 'silver soldering'or brazing. Soft solder can contain lead and/or flux but in many applications lead free solder is used.Perhaps the most common and most familiar form of solder is as a wire or rod, though plumbers often usebars of solder while jewelers often use solder in thin sheets which they cut into snippets. Solder can alsocome in a paste or as a preformed foil shaped to match the workpiece. The word solder comes from theMiddle English word soudur, via Old French solduree and soulder, from the Latin solidare, meaning "tomake solid".Eutectic alloys melt at a single temperature. Non-eutectic alloys have markedly different solidusand liquidus temperature, and within that range they exist as a paste of solid particles in a melt of thelower-melting phase. The pasty state causes some problems during handling; it can however be exploitedas it allows molding of the solder during cooling, e.g. for ensuring watertight joint of pipes, resulting in a socalled 'wiped joint'.With the reduction of the size of circuit board features, the size of interconnect shrinks as well. Currentdensities above 104 A/cm2 are often achieved andelectromigration becomes a concern. At such currentdensities the Sn63Pb37 solder balls form hillocks on the anode side and voids on the cathode side; theincreased content of lead on the anode side suggests lead is the primary migrating species.Contact with molten solder can cause 'solder embrittlement' of the materials, a type of liquid metalembrittlement.