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A comparative assessment of metal-Al2O3 joints formed using two distinct transient-liquid-phase-forming interlayers

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Abstract

Multilayer metallic interlayers with two different architectures, one Nb-based and the other V-based, both designed to produce a thin transient-liquid-phase layer, have been used to bond high-purity Al2O3 ceramics. The mechanical properties of the resulting Al2O3-metal joints were examined at both macro- and nano-scale levels. The roles of the interlayer designs (Ni/Mo/Nb/Mo/Ni vs. Ni/Nb/V/Nb/Ni), resulting joint microstructures, lattice defects, and residual stresses on mechanical properties and failure modes were evaluated. Reduced residual stresses and improved ceramic/metal interfacial microstructures contribute to the superior performance obtained with the Ni/Mo/Nb/Mo/Ni multilayer interlayer.

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Notes

  1. This assumes that the diffusion of Ni into Nb during heating to 1300–1320 °C is negligible, and that all the Ni is available to form a liquid. Interdiffusion during heating can affect the temperature at which liquid formation initiates and the amount of liquid formed.

  2. The contact-angle measurements were performed on droplets of fixed composition in a range of furnaces, none of which offered explicit control over, or assessment of the oxygen partial pressure. For cases where experiments were done in both a refractory metal element vacuum furnace, and in the graphitic environment of the vacuum bonding furnace, no differences in contact angle were detected, suggesting that the oxygen partial pressures sampled were in the plateau region where contact angles are insensitive to the oxygen partial pressure [41]. The conditions that arise in a sessile-drop experiment and in TLP bonding experiments of the type described in this paper differ in a number of important ways. In TLP bonding, the liquid is present as a very thin film that is in direct contact with the ambient atmosphere only along the bond perimeter. The ratio of the liquid/vapor to liquid/solid interface areas in a sessile-drop experiment and in TLP bonding typically differ by several orders of magnitude. At the perimeter, the solid refractory metal core layer is also in contact with the ambient atmosphere and can locally modify the oxygen partial pressure. Core layer dissolution occurs during bonding. Most refractory metals contain dissolved oxygen, and thus the oxygen activity along the interlayer/ceramic interface is quite likely more strongly impacted by the core layer’s dissolved oxygen content than the ambient oxygen pressure. Finally, in contrast to a typical sessile-drop experiment, the composition of the liquid changes with temperature and in ternary systems can also adjust with time. Thus, the impact of the ambient oxygen partial pressure in a sessile-drop experiment and in a TLP bonding experiment may be very different.

  3. The dominance of failures within the ceramic indicates that the intergranular intermetallic phases seen within the interlayer do not provide a preferred fracture path, and do not appear to play a critical role in defining the joint strength.

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Acknowledgements

G. de Portu is grateful to JSPS for providing the financial support (Grant N. S-11723) for his stay at Kyoto Institute of Technology and to CNR that funded, in the framework of the Short Term Mobility Program, the visit to the University of California Berkeley. A. M. Glaeser acknowledges long-term support from the GRF, and a prior STM Program grant that initiated this collaboration. Thanks are also due to S. Guicciardi and C. Melandri for the nano-indentation measurements, to Y. Yamamoto for the assistance in fluorescence and CL spectroscopic measurements and to A. Leto for SEM micrographs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, National Research Council of Italy (ISTEC-CNR), Via Granarolo 64, 48018, Faenza, Italy

    Goffredo de Portu

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-1760, USA

    Andreas M. Glaeser & Thomas B. Reynolds

  3. Ceramic Physics Laboratory, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Sakyo-ku, Matsugasaki, Kyoto, 606-8585, Japan

    Yasuhito Takahashi, Marco Boffelli & Giuseppe Pezzotti

  4. Department of Bone and Joint Biomaterial Research, Tokyo Medical University, 6-7-1, Nishishinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160-0023, Japan

    Yasuhito Takahashi

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  1. Goffredo de Portu
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  2. Andreas M. Glaeser
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  3. Thomas B. Reynolds
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  4. Yasuhito Takahashi
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  5. Marco Boffelli
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  6. Giuseppe Pezzotti
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Correspondence to Goffredo de Portu.

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de Portu, G., Glaeser, A.M., Reynolds, T.B. et al. A comparative assessment of metal-Al2O3 joints formed using two distinct transient-liquid-phase-forming interlayers. J Mater Sci 50, 2467–2479 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8803-1

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