With the increased deployment of power modules in demanding conditions, sintering materials, especially composite sintering materials, have raised growing interest due to their cost-effectiveness and suitability. Therefore, this study explores the viability of Cu–Ag composite sintering material, focusing on solvent influence through microstructure and mechanical behavior analysis. Micron-sized particle-based Cu–Ag composite pastes were designed and compared using eight solvents (four epoxy-free and four epoxy-added) based on fluidity and thermal stability. The sintered joints' performance, assessed through shear strength analysis, showed comparable values to pure silver sintering for both epoxy-free and epoxy-added samples. Optimized samples from each solvent system underwent reliability analysis, demonstrating that Cu–Ag joints with epoxy resin exhibited significantly higher shear strength after high-temperature storage and thermal cycling tests. Micromorphology and elemental composition analysis revealed differences in aging mechanisms, primarily attributed to variations in porosity due to oxide formation and pore filling by epoxy resin under different solvent systems. Further nanoindentation characterization of micromechanical properties, including hardness, modulus, and creep properties, during high-temperature aging, established constitutive models for insights into reliability evolution. In conclusion, the optimized epoxy-added Cu–Ag sintered joints proposed in this study demonstrated exceptional reliability and acceptable micromechanical properties, presenting a promising option for high-temperature power packaging.

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With the development of electronic technology towards high power, miniaturization, and system integration, power electronic packaging is facing increasing challenges, especially for die attachment. This research aims to explore silver-coated copper (Cu@Ag) paste with sufficient mechanical properties and high-temperature reliability, as an alternative solution for silver sintering with lower cost. Firstly, micro-Cu@Ag sintering pastes were investigated under four kinds of polyol-based solvent systems and two types of particle morphologies, which included sphere-type (SCu@Ag) and flake-type (FCu@Ag). Sintering performance and microstructural evolution were compared and analyzed. Notably, sintered joints employing the terpineol–polyethylene glycol solvent system and flake-type morphology displayed a denser microstructure in comparison to SCu@Ag joints. Its bonding strength reached 36.15 MPa, which was approximately 20% higher than SCu@Ag joints. Subsequently, the influence of key sintering process parameters on Cu@Ag joints was analyzed, including sintering temperature, pressure and time. Additionally, high-temperature aging and thermal cycling tests were conducted on the optimized Cu@Ag joints to assess their reliability. Finally, the micromechanical properties of Cu@Ag joints before and after high-temperature aging were further evaluated by nanoindentation including creep properties. The elastoplastic constitutive models of Cu@Ag sintered materials with different particle morphologies were constructed, providing valuable insights for reliability evaluation. The results indicated that FCu@Ag joints exhibited satisfactory creep resistance and high-temperature reliability. In conclusion, the FCu@Ag micro-paste based on the terpineol–polyethylene glycol solvent system proposed in this study demonstrated sufficient bonding strength, high reliability, and adequate mechanical properties as an attractive solution for high-temperature power electronics packaging.

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With the increasing application of wide bandgap materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride in power devices, the working temperature of power devices has been pushed further. Therefore, it brings higher requirements for packaging materials. Sintered silver is a widely accepted chip connection material. However, silver suffers from high prices and electromigration. Therefore, a novel sintered material based on silver-copper core-shell structured particles raises the attention of researchers to solve this deficiency. To accelerate the development of new materials and their related processes, a four-sphere model of the silver-coated copper structure is established in this paper. The mathematical relationship between the porosity and thermal conductivity of sintered body and the actual sintering process was preliminarily established through the calculation based on a series of FEM simulations. The model was further validated through experiments. The modeling method and conclusion are utilized for future process adjustment, which is of great significance to accelerate the development, application, and reliability of new packaging materials.@en

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 multifactor investigation is settled on the epoxy-based silver paste to reveal the relationship between the strength and the different influence factors. We first analyzed the characteristics of commercialized epoxy-based silver paste samples, including silver content, silver particle size, organic 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.

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Ultrasonic wire bonding is one of the critical challenges for power semiconductor manufacturing process, especially for silicon carbide (SiC) power devices. Packaging-related strain on the dies is one of the limiting factors for SiC devices scaling towards mass-production. Furthermore, due to the high current demand for SiC power device packaging, thick bond wires are often needed, which brings major challenges for the ultrasonic wire bonding process. Thus, computational simulation methods are under development to assist the wire bonding process. This paper presents a simulation method that can quickly narrow the process window for thick bond wires on SiC power devices beforehand. A process model was created to adapt process parameters of bonding force and power. This model aims to simulate the bond deformation for a discretized bonding area. Wire deformation and equivalent plastic strain were then examined and compared. The model was further validated through experiments. Experimental validation of the wire bonding model reveals a suitable deformation of bond wires, which helps to improve thick wire bonding reliability for power electronics packaging.@en