Joint Analysis and Reliability Test of Epoxy-Based Nano Silver Paste Under Different Pressure-Less Sintering Processes

Recent years, the sintered silver paste was introduced and further developed for power electronics packaging due to low processing temperature and high working temperature. The pressure-less sintering technology reduces the stress damage caused by the pressure to the chip, improves reliability, and is widely applied in manufacturing. Currently, most existed studies are focused on alcohol-based sintered silver pastes while resins have been demonstrated to improve the bonding properties of solder joints. Hence, the performance and sintering mechanisms with epoxy-based silver paste need to be further explored. In this work, a methodology for multi-factor investigation is settled on the epoxy-based silver paste to reveal the relationship between the strength and the different influence factors. We firstly analyzed the characteristics of commercialized epoxy-based silver paste samples, including silver content, silver particle size, organic paste composition, sample viscosity, and thermal conductivity. Samples were then prepared for shear tests and microstructure analysis under different pressure-less sintering temperatures, holding time, substrate surface, and chip size. Full factor analysis results were further discussed in detail for correlation. The influence factors were ranked from strong to weak as follows: sintering temperature, substrate surface, chip size, and holding time. Finally, a thermal cycling test was carried out for reliability analysis. Epoxy residues are one of the possible reasons which result in shear strength decreasing exponentially.

Heat Transfer Analysis of Supercritical Methane in Microchannels with Different Geometric Configurations On High Power Electromechanical Actuator

The issue of regenerative cooling is one of the most important key technologies of flight vehicles, which is applied into both the engine and high-power electrical equipment. One pattern of regenerative cooling channels is the microchannel heat sinks, which are thought as a prospective means of improving heat removal capacities on electrical equipment of smaller sizes. In this paper, three numerical models with different geometric configurations, namely straight, zigzag, and sinusoid respectively, are built to probe into the thermal hydraulic performance while heat transfer mechanism of supercritical methane in microchannel heat sinks for the heat removal of high-power electromechanical actuator is also explored. In addition, some crucial influence factors on heat transfer such as inlet Reynolds number, operating pressure and heating power are investigated. The calculation results imply the positive effect of wavy configurations on heat transfer and confirm the important effect of buoyancy force of supercritical methane in channels. The heat sinks with wavy channel show obvious advantages on comprehensive thermal performance including overall thermal performance parameter ? and thermal resistance R compared with that of the straight one. The highest Nu and average heat transfer coefficient am appear in the heat sink with zigzag channels, but the pumping power of the heat sink with sinusoidal channels is lower due to the smaller flow loss.

Simplified and Detailed Analysis of Data Center Particulate Contamination At Server and Room Level Using CFD

Continuous rise in cloud computing and other web-based services propelled the data center proliferation seen over the past decade. Traditional data centers use vapor-compression-based cooling units that not only reduce energy efficiency but also increase operational and initial investment costs due to involved redundancies. Free air cooling and airside economization can substantially reduce the IT Equipment (ITE) cooling power consumption, which accounts for approximately 40% of energy consumption for a typical air-cooled data center. However, this cooling approach entails an inherent risk of exposing the IT equipment to harmful ultrafine particulate contaminants, thus, potentially reducing the equipment and component reliability. The present investigation attempts to quantify the effects of particulate contamination inside the data center equipment and ITE room using CFD. An analysis of the boundary conditions to be used was done by detailed modeling of IT equipment and the data center white space. Both 2-D and 3-D simulations were done for detailed analysis of particle transport within the server enclosure. An analysis of the effect of the primary pressure loss obstructions like heat sinks and DIMMs inside the server was done to visualize the localized particle concentrations within the server. A room-level simulation was then conducted to identify the most vulnerable locations of particle concentration within the data center space. The results show that parameters such as higher velocities, heat sink cutouts, and higher aspect ratio features within the server tend to increase the particle concentration inside the servers.

Damage Analysis in Ag Nanoparticle Interconnect Line Under High-Density Electric Current

Printed electronics (PEs) have attracted attention for the fabrication of microscale electronic circuits. PEs use conductive inks which include metal nanoparticles. The conductive ink can be printed on flexible substrates for wearable devices using ink-jet printers and roll-to-roll methods. With the scaling down of electric devices, the current density and Joule heating in the device lines increase, and electromigration (EM) damage becomes significant. EM is a transportation phenomenon of metallic atoms caused by the electron wind under high-density current. Reducing the EM damage is extremely important to enhance the device reliability. With the progress in miniaturization of the metal nanoparticle ink lines, EM problem needs to be solved for ensuring the reliability of these lines. We know that the formation of aggregates and cathode damages occur due to a current loading. The diffusion path of atoms due to the EM has not been identified under the high-density current loading. In this study, a high-density electric current loading was applied to an Ag nanoparticle line. The line specimens were prepared using a lift-off method. After the current loading tests, observations were conducted using a laser microscope and scanning electron microscope. A local decrease in the line thickness and scale-shaped slit-like voids were observed due to the high-density current loading. Moreover, the microstructure of the line was modified by enlarging the Ag grain. From the results, we identified that a dominant diffusion occurred at the Ag grain boundary due to the EM.

Numerical and Parametric Investigation of the Effect of Heat Spreading On Boiling of a Dielectric Liquid for Immersion Cooling of Electronics

In a two-phase immersion cooling system, boiling on the spreader surface has been experimentally found to be non-uniform, and it is highly related to the surface temperature and the heat transfer coefficient. An experimentally obtained temperature-dependent boiling heat transfer coefficient has been applied to a numerical model to investigate the spreader's cooling performance. It is found that the surface temperature distribution becomes less uniform with higher input power. But it is more uniform when the thickness is increased. By defining the characteristic temperatures that represent different boiling regimes on the surface, the fraction of the surface area that has reached the critical heat flux has been numerically calculated, showing that increasing the thickness from 1 mm to 6 mm decreases the critical heat flux reached area by 23% at saturation liquid temperatures. Therefore, on the thicker spreader, more of the surface is utilized for nucleate boiling while localized hot regions that lead to surface dry-out are avoided. At a base temperature of 90 oC, the optimal thickness is found to be 4 mm, beyond which no significant improvement in heat removal can be obtained. Lower coolant temperatures can further increase the heat removal; it is reduced from an 18% improvement in the input power for the 1 mm case to only 3% in the 6 mm case for a coolant temperature drop of 24 oC. Therefore, a trade-off exists between the cost of maintaining the low liquid temperature and the increased heat removal capacity.

Prediction of Board Level Pad Cratering Strength with the Pre-Defined Failure Criteria From Joint Level Testing

Conventional reliability tests for the evaluation of pad cratering resistance are mainly classified into two categories: the board level test and the joint level test. The board level test is to imitate the loading conditions during normal operation. However, this type of test is expensive and not flexible. The joint level test is used extensively in the industry because it has the advantages of lower cost, higher throughput, and more quantitative results. It also allows the elimination of confounding factors such as PCB and component stiffness. Therefore, it is always desirable to predict the board level performance by a joint level test. In order to achieve this objective, the correlation between the joint level and the board level tests must be fully understood. Nevertheless, a precise correlation between the two types of tests for pad cratering evaluation is yet to be defined. This study investigates the pad cratering failure mode for the correlation of critical failure factors between joint and board level tests. An intermediate critical failure factor could be taken as a failure criterion in board level testing for failure detection. For verifying the validity of such a failure criterion, an experimental study should be performed. The 4-point bending test is chosen as the board level test for critical failure factor validation. In addition, an innovative pin shear test method is developed as the joint level test for failure factor detection. Both test methods are assessed by a series of parametric studies with an optimized process to ensure the accuracy of the results. From the results of the experimental study and simulation, the critical failure factor correlation is established between the board level 4-point bending and the joint level pin shear test. Using finite element analysis (FEA), the critical failure strain is identified from the pin shear test model and will be employed as the board level failure criterion. Subsequently the obtained failure criterion is verified by a 4-point bending model. As a result, this indirect correlation method can predict the board level failure with various geometric parameters.

Validation and Parametric Investigations of an Internal Permanent Magnet Motor Using a Lumped Parameter Thermal Model

One of the key challenges for the electric vehicle industry is to develop high-power-density electric motors. Achieving higher power density requires efficient heat removal from inside the motor. In order to improve thermal management, a multi-physics modeling framework that is able to accurately predict the behavior of the motor, while being computationally efficient, is essential. This paper first presents a detailed validation of a Lumped Parameter Thermal Network (LPTN) model of an Internal Permanent Magnet synchronous motor within the commercially available Motor-CAD® modeling environment. The validation is based on temperature comparison with experimental data and with more detailed Finite Element Analysis (FEA). All critical input parameters of the LPTN are considered in detail for each layer of the stator, especially the contact resistances between the impregnation, liner, laminations and housing. Finally, a sensitivity analysis for each of the critical input parameters is provided. A maximum difference of 4% - for the highest temperature in the slot-winding and the end-winding - was found between the LPTN and the experimental data. Comparing the results from the LPTN and the FEA model, the maximum difference was 2% for the highest temperature in the slot-winding and end-winding. As for the LTPN sensitivity analysis, the thermal parameter with the highest sensitivity was found to be the liner-to-lamination contact resistance.

InterPACK2020

N/A

Indentation Tests for Sintered Silver in Die-Attach Interconnection After Thermal Cycling

Thermo-mechanical reliability assessment for sintered silver is a crucial issue as sintered silver is a promising candidate of die-attachment materials for power devices. In this paper, the nano-indentation tests are performed for sintered silver in typical die-attach interconnection under different thermal cycles. Based on thermal cycling test, the Young's modulus and hardness of sintered silver layer have been presented. It is found that the Young's modulus and hardness of sintered silver layer changes slightly although the microstructure of sintered silver also presents some variations. The stress and strain curves for different thermal cycling tests for sintered silver based on reverse analysis of nano-indentation are also given. The results show that the elastoplastic constitutive equations change significantly after thermal cycling tests, and the yielding stress decreases remarkably after 70 thermal cycles. The experimental investigation also show that the cracking behaviors of sintered silver depends on its geometry characteristics, which implies that the possible optimization of sintered silver layer could enhance its thermo-mechanical performance.

Understanding Thermal Lagging Behaviors in Thermoelectric Elements with the Dual-Phase-Lag Model

This study investigates the heat transport mechanism in semiconductor elements within a homogeneous thermoelectric cooling system using the dual-phase-lag model. The thermal lagging behavior is analyzed and explored during the energy transport process. The coupled energy and constitutive partial differential equations are solved simultaneously to reduce the complexity of the high-order spatial and time derivatives. This approach simplifies the mathematical solution process and reduces numerical instabilities when compared to the conventional methodology in which either the temperature or heat flux are solved individually with a single equation. The effect of the thermal lagging behavior on energy transport is examined and compared to results by using the Cattaneo-Vernotte model. Furthermore, the phase-lag behavior on the temperature and heat flux profiles are investigated in detail. This study provides perceptive information for engineering applications in which microscale heat transport phenomenon plays a significant role during the design process. Adding the dual-phase-lag model to the traditional heat diffusion model will be a complementary option for engineers in the thermoelectric industry.