Patent 7556669 was granted and assigned to Mitsubishi Materials on July, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The problem is to provide an Au—Sn alloy powder for use in producing an Au—Sn alloy solder paste having reduced generation of voids. The problem is solved by an Au—Sn alloy powder for a solder paste, which has a composition consisting of Sn of 20.5-23.5% by mass and a remainder containing Au and inevitable impurities, and which has a microstructure in which 0.5 to 30 area % of fine Sn-rich primary crystal phase regions having a diameter of 3 μm or less are crystallized in a matrix.