The low-temperature joining technique (LTJT) by silver sintering is being implemented by major manufacturers of power electronics devices and modules for bonding power semiconductor chips. A common die-attach material used with LTJT is a silver paste consisting of silver powder (micron- or nano-size particles) mixed in organic solvent and binder formulation. It is believed that the drying of the paste during the bonding process plays a critical role in determining the quality of the sintered bond-line. In this study, a model based on the diffusion of solvent molecules and viscous mechanics of the paste was introduced to determine the stress and strain states of the silver bond-line. A numerical simulation algorithm of the model was developed and coded in the C++ programming language. The numerical simulation allows determination of the time-dependent physical properties of the silver bond-line as the paste is being dried with a heating profile. The properties studied were solvent concentration, weight loss, shrinkage, stress, and strain. The stress is the cause of cracks in the bond-line and bond-line delamination. The simulated results were verified by complementary experiments in which the formation of cracks in bond-line and interface delamination was observed during the pressure-free drying of a die-attach nanosilver paste. Furthermore, the important drying parameters, such as drying pressure, low temperature drying time and temperature ramp rate of nanosilver LTJT process, are experimentally studied and analyzed with the numerical simulation. The simulated results were consistent with the experimental findings that the quality of sintered silver bond-line increases with increasing external drying pressure, with increasing low temperature drying time, and with decreasing temperature ramp rate. The insight offered by this modeling study can be used to optimize the process profile that enable pressure-free, low-temperature sintering of the die-attach material to significantly lower the cost of implementing the LTJT in manufacturing. / Ph. D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/25137 |
| Date | 23 January 2014 |
| Creators | Xiao, Kewei |
| Contributors | Materials Science and Engineering, Lu, Guo Quan, Ngo, Khai D., Aning, Alexander O., Pickrell, Gary R. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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