Nano-silver Sintering: Reliability on Cyanate Ester Composites

Research Square

Overview

Low-temperature nano-silver sintering enables the direct bonding of power chips to fiber-reinforced cyanate ester composite substrates with a maximum shear strength of 11.5 MPa. The joints maintain 9.3 MPa strength after 600 h of high-temperature aging, identifying substrate thermal degradation as the primary reliability limit. This method provides a route for integrating power electronics with lightweight, thermally stable, and low-dielectric polymer composites.

In Depth

Key Findings

Direct nano-silver sintering on non-metallized cyanate ester composite substrates achieves a maximum shear strength of 11.5 MPa. Following 600 h of high-temperature aging, the shear strength remained at 9.3 MPa, which represents a decrease of approximately 19%.

Technical Details

The bonding process involves the coalescence of Ag particles on the composite surface to form a mechanically bonded heterogeneous interface. The study analyzed the impact of pressure on the porosity of the sintered Ag layer:

• Sintering at 15 MPa for 15 min resulted in a porosity of 10.1%.
• Increasing the pressure to 20 MPa decreased the porosity to 6.5%.

Analysis of failure modes revealed a progressive shift during the aging process. Initial failures occurred at the Ag/composite interface, but later shifted toward cracking and delamination within the composite substrate itself.

Background & Context

The integration of power chips with polymer composites is driven by the need for materials that are lightweight, thermally stable, and possess low-dielectric properties. Cyanate ester composite substrates serve as the base for this integration, and nano-silver sintering is utilized as a low-temperature bonding method to avoid damaging the polymer matrix.

Significance & Outlook

The results demonstrate that low-temperature nano-silver bonding is feasible for non-metallized cyanate ester composites. While the joints show high stability after 600 h of aging, the shift in failure mode indicates that the thermal degradation of the substrate, rather than the silver joint itself, is the principal limitation on long-term reliability.

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