Microstructural and mechanical analyses of Ag sintered joints

Ag sintering is a promising joining technology for high temperature power electronic packaging, particularly for the die attach of power semiconductor dies. Here, usually pressures of more than 20 MPa are applied. However, current studies are aimed at establishing sintering processes with reduced or even without pressure. In order to correlate the quality of the bonding with the applied pressure, as well as with the bonding area and the thickness of the sintered Ag layer, Si dies were mounted on Cu substrates and analyzed using X-ray imaging, ultrasonic microscopy and destructive examination methods such as shear tests and SEM analysis of cross sections