Abstract
The surface oxidation of internal pore surfaces of nano-scale sintered silver has increased stability for high temperature applications. Operating temperatures of up to 400 °C have resulted in no or minimal changes in microstructure. By contrast, it is known that the microstructure of untreated pressure-less sintered silver continuously evolves at temperatures above 200 °C, grain and pore growth resulting in microstructure coarsening and increased susceptibility to fatigue. Oxidation of the internal pore surfaces has been shown to freeze the microstructure when the contact metallization is also silver or chemically inert. Samples exhibited no change in microstructure either through continuous observation through glass, or after cross sectioning. The tested specimens under high temperature storage resisted grain growth for more than 1000 h at 300 °C. The oxidising treatment can be performed via many different routes. For example, exposure to steam, or even by dipping in water for 10 min followed by immediate high temperature exposure and the effectiveness of these varying treatments is assessed. In this work we explore the mechanism that causes stabilization and explore the hypothesis that oxidation prevents grain boundary movements by arresting the fast migration of atoms along the internal pore surfaces. Analysis of the surface structure of the sintered silver by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows presence of silver oxide (Ag2O) and computer simulation of grain boundary movements confirm the presence of a barrier to atomic movement on the internal silver surfaces. These findings are very promising for potential applications of sintered silver as a die attach material for High Temperature electronics packaging.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
V.R. Manikam, K.Y. Cheong, Die attach materials for high temperature applications: a review. IEEE Trans. Compon. Packag. Manuf. Technol. 1(4), 457–478 (2011)
K.S. Tan, K.Y. Cheong, Mechanical properties of sintered Ag-Cu die-attach nanopaste for application on SiC device. Mater. Des. 64, 166–176 (2014)
A. Masson, C. Buttay, H. Morel, C. Raynaud, S. Hascoet, L. Gremillard, High-temperature die-attaches for SiC power devices, in Proceedings of the 2011 14th European Conference on IEEE, (2011), pp. 1–10
T.A. Tollefsen, O.M. Løvvik, K. Aasmundtveit, A. Larsson, Effect of temperature on the die shear strength of a Au-Sn SLID bond. Metall. Mater. Trans. A 44(7), 2914–2916 (2013)
S.A. Paknejad, S.H. Mannan, Review of silver nanoparticle based die attach materials for high power/temperature applications. Microelectron. Reliab. 70, 1–11 (2017)
S.A. Paknejad, A. Mansourian, J. Greenberg, K. Khtatba, L. Van Parijs, S.H. Mannan, Microstructural evolution of sintered silver at elevated temperatures. Microelectron. Reliab. 63, 125–133 (2016)
K.S. Siow, Are sintered silver joints ready for use as interconnect material in microelectronic packaging? J. Electron. Mater. 43(4), 947–961 (2014)
S.A. Paknejad, A. Mansourian, Y. Noh, K. Khtatba, S.H. Mannan, Thermally stable high temperature die attach solution. Mater. Des. 89, 1310–1314 (2016)
H. Zhang, S. Nagao, K. Suganuma, Addition of SiC particles to Ag die-attach paste to improve high-temperature stability; grain growth kinetics of sintered porous Ag. J. Electron. Mater. 44(10), 3896–3903 (2015)
S.A. Paknejad, K. Khtatba, A. Mansourian, S.H. Mannan, Ultra-stable sintered silver die attach for demanding high-power/temperature applications. IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Reliab. 17(4), 795–798 (2017)
K. Khtatba, S.A. Paknejad, A. Mansourian, S.H. Mannan, Sintered silver die attach with extreme thermal stability for extreme and dynamic environments, in International Conference and Exhibition on High Temperature Electronics Network (HiTEN), Cambridge, 10–12 July 2017
S.L. Burkett, M. Zeee, E.M. Charlson, E.J. Charlson, H.K. Yasuda, D. Yang, The effect of cleaning procedures on surface charging of various substrates. IEEE Trans. Semicond. Manuf. 8(1), 10–16 (1995)
S.A. Paknejad, Factors influencing microstructural evolution in nanoparticle sintered Ag die attach, in International Conference and Exhibition on High Temperature Electronics Network (HiTEN), 6–8 July 2015, Cambridge, 2015, pp. 50–58,
F. Le Henaff, S. Azzopardi, E. Woirgard, T. Youssef, S. Bontemps, J. Joguet, Lifetime evaluation of nanoscale silver sintered power modules for automotive application based on experiments and finite-element modeling. IEEE Trans. Device Mater. Reliab. 15(3), 326–334 (2015)
M.W. Reiterer, K.G. Ewsuk, An analysis of four different approaches to predict and control sintering. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 92(7), 1419–1427 (2009)
F. Wakai, Modeling and simulation of elementary processes in ideal sintering. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 89(5), 1471–1484 (2006)
L. Ding, R.L. Davidchack, J. Pan, A molecular dynamics study of sintering between nanoparticles. Comput. Mater. Sci. 45(2), 247–256 (2009)
H.N. Ch’ng, J. Pan, Modelling microstructural evolution of porous polycrystalline materials and a numerical study of anisotropic sintering. J. Comput. Phys. 204(2), 430–461 (2005)
H.N. Ch’ng, J. Pan, Sintering of particles of different sizes. Acta Mater. 55(3), 813–824 (2007)
H. Matsubara, Computer simulations for the design of microstructural developments in ceramics. Comput. Mater. Sci. 14(1–4), 125–128 (1999)
A.M. Ferraria, A.P. Carapeto, A.M. Botelho Do Rego, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: silver salts revisited. Vacuum 86(12), 1988–1991 (2012)
C.G. Turuelo, B. Bergmann, C. Breitkopf, Void shape evolution of silicon simulation: non-linear three-dimensional curvature calculation by first order analysis. Univ. J. Comput. Anal. 2, 27–45 (2014)
S.A. Paknejad, G. Dumas, G. West, G. Lewis, S.H. Mannan, Microstructure evolution during 300 °C storage of sintered Ag nanoparticles on Ag and Au substrates. J. Alloys Compd. 617, 994–1001 (2014)
W. Rmili, N. Vivet, S. Chupin, T. Le Bihan, G. Le Quilliec, C. Richard, Quantitative analysis of porosity and transport properties by FIB-SEM 3D imaging of a solder based sintered silver for a new microelectronic component. J. Electron. Mater. 45(4), 2242–2251 (2016)
T. Morita, Y. Yasuda, E. Ide, Y. Akada, A. Hirose, Bonding technique using micro-scaled silver-oxide particles for in-situ formation of silver nanoparticles. Mater. Trans. 49(12), 2875–2880 (2008)
A.R. Layson, J.W. Evans, P.A. Thiel, Additive-enhanced coarsening and smoothening of metal films: complex mass-flow dynamics underlying nanostructure evolution. Phys. Rev. B 65(19), 1–4 (2002)
G.E. Rhead, Surface self-diffusion of silver in various atmospheres. Acta Metall. 13(3), 223–226 (1965)
R. Dannenberg, E. Stach, J.R. Groza, B.J. Dresser, TEM annealing study of normal grain growth in silver thin films. Thin Solid Films 379(1–2), 133–138 (2000)
G. Antczak, G. Ehrlich, Surface diffusion: metals, metal atoms, and clusters. (Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 347
A. Kinloch, Adhesion and adhesives: science and technology. (Springer Science & Business Media, London, 2012), p. 33
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank for Ernest Samuel and Patrick Bergstrom Mann and J. Greenberg for their help during the experiments and the XPS Centre (NEXUS) at Newcastle University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khtatba, K., Paknejad, S.A., Al Zoubi, T. et al. Arresting high-temperature microstructural evolution inside sintered silver. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 30, 463–474 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-0311-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-0311-7