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Effects of Oxygen Content on Low-Temperature Bonding Using Organic-Free Silver Nanostructured Film with Different Types of Substrate Metallization

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Abstract

As the next generation of die attachment technology, sintering bonding using silver nanoparticles is attracting great interest for application in power electronics packaging. For organic-free silver nano-sintering materials, increasing the oxygen content facilitates the sintering process but also causes oxidation of the substrate and other components. In this work, organic-free silver nanostructured film was utilized to bond the SiC chips and the substrate with three types of metallization: (1) electroless nickel immersion gold finishing substrate (ENIG), (2) Ag-coated substrate, and (3) bare Cu substrate. The bonding process was conducted at low temperature (150–300°C), and the effects of oxygen on the microstructure, bonding quality of the interfaces and fracture morphology were studied. Oxygen significantly facilitated the sintering process of the Ag nanoparticles in the film, which promoted the densification of the bondline, even at low concentrations (0.05%). In addition, the facilitating effects of oxygen were detected at content of 0.05% during the sintering between Ag nanoparticles and the three types of metallized substrate. However, at higher oxygen content (≥5%), the sintering behavior varied among the different substrate metals. The Ag-coated substrate surface roughened in situ at high oxygen content and showed positive effects on the bonding strength, while the ENIG substrate surface was inert to oxygen. The bare Cu substrate surface showed complex oxide states at different oxygen concentrations. The Cu2O phase formed at oxygen content of ≤ 5%, which enhanced the bonding strength, while CuO tended to appear at oxygen content of ≥ 20%, which reduced the bonding strength. These results reveal that relatively low oxygen content (0.05%) can effectively improve bonding strength while avoiding oxidation of the Cu substrate.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 52075287, 52275346).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Bei**g, 100084, China

    Wengan Wang, Guisheng Zou, Zhongyang Deng, Bin Feng & Lei Liu

  2. Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing, Bei**g University of Technology, Bei**g, 100124, China

    Qiang Jia

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  1. Wengan Wang
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Wang, W., Zou, G., Deng, Z. et al. Effects of Oxygen Content on Low-Temperature Bonding Using Organic-Free Silver Nanostructured Film with Different Types of Substrate Metallization. J. Electron. Mater. 53, 3870–3886 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-024-11020-0

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