Improving the bond strength of sinter joints by modifying the DBC without noble finishes and modified silver sinter pastes

Silver Sintering on DBC has rapidly become one of the set standard interconnection technologies for high reliability power modules. Existing silver sintering technologies need a noble metal finish to achieve good bonding results at all times and do not consistently work on DBC copper surfaces without finish. This paper will present adhesion results on both copper and Ag DBC surfaces of DBC, with a focus on improving the adhesion results through improved sintering pastes and by modifying the DBC substrate copper properties. Significant improvement can be shown for bare copper DBC substrates.