Effect of Spinodal Decomposition Pore on Shear Strength of Silver

This study investigates the effect of spinodal decomposition pores on the shear strength of nano silver (nAg) used as a die attach material in electronic packaging. The formation of porous nAg structures with varying porosity levels is simulated using the Cahn-Hilliard equation, with the initial nAg concentration controlling the porosity rate. Molecular dynamics simulations are then employed to evaluate the mechanical response of the porous nAg under shear deformation. The results demonstrate that increasing porosity significantly decreases the ultimate shear strength. Furthermore, detailed analyses of surface area evolution, stress distribution, and dislocation density reveal the intricate interplay between porosity and deformation mechanisms. Highly porous nAg exhibits a more uniform stress distribution and lower dislocation accumulation compared to low-porosity structures. The findings provide valuable insights into optimizing the porosity of nAg for enhanced mechanical reliability in electronic packaging applications. The proposed modeling framework can be extended to other material systems for exploring microstructure-property relationships.