Shear Strength and Thermomechanical Reliability of Sintered Ag Joints Containing low CTE Non-metal Additives for Die Attach

Ag sintering has been paid attention as an alternative to soldering in die attach for decades, especially for high temperature power electronics packages because of its high melting temperature, highly thermal and electrical conductivity of the sintered silver joints, and low process temperature less than 275°C. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of silver (19.1ppm/°C), however, is much higher than the silicon die (2.6ppm/°C) and the commonly used alumina substrate (7.2ppm/°C). CTE mismatch of the different materials in the various components in a power electronics package lead to the delamination at the interface between interconnection layer and chips or substrate, and/or cracking of the interconnection layer is one of the mostly common causes of failure of power electronics device during thermal cycling or high temperature operation. In recent years we have been developing a series of silver sinter pastes containing low CTE non-metal particles to reduce or adjust CTE of the sintered joints so as to extend the lifetime and reliability of power electronics device in high temperature applications. In the present paper, we will report a new set of silver sinter pastes containing micro scale non-metal particles, a sintering process, microstructural morphologies, thermo-mechanical reliability of the sintered joint and effect of the contents of non-metal particles on shear strength of the sintered silver joints bonding an Ag silicon die on Ni/Au DBC substrates. Shear tests on the sintered joints with and/or without the low CTE non-metal additives have been conducted at room temperature, 200, 250, and 300°C. Thermo-mechanical reliability of the sintered joints was evaluated by thermal cycling, thermal shock, high temperature storage tests (HTS), respectively. X-ray inspection and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize void, crack and microstructure morphologies of the sintered joints with and/or without the additives.