Reliability of Double Side Silver Sintered Devices with various Substrate Metallization

Silver sintering technology is one of the most promising high performance lead-free die-attach technologies. The work presented focuses on the thermo-mechanical and electrical performance evaluation of double side sintered modules. Die and clip attachments are processed with pressure assisted Argomax(r) silver sintering technology developed by Alpha Assembly Solutions. Power cycling tests following automotive requirements (200A, 5s ON and 10s OFF, until failure) and thermal cycling tests (liquid to liquid, -55deg C/+165deg C, 3 minutes dwell time for 1000 cycles) were applied to the devices. Thermal impedance measurements along with optical observations (metallographic and CSAM analysis) showed a significant increase of the 650V/200A IGBT device reliability when compared with best in class solder technology.