Effect of Sintering Pressure on the Porosity and the Shear Strength of the Pressure-Assisted Silver Sintering Bonding

The microstructure, thickness, porosity, and shear performance of the silver (Ag) sintering layers under different sintering pressures were investigated. Experimental results demonstrated that the thickness and the porosity of the sintering layer decreased when the sintering pressure varied from 5 MPa to 30 MPa. This densification phenomenon facilitated the enhancement of the Ag sintering layers. The shear strength was improved significantly from 44.19 MPa to 69.41 MPa when the sintering pressure increased from 5 MPa to 10 MPa. When the sintering pressure ranged from 10 MPa to 30 MPa, the shear strength presented a slow increase from 69.41 MPa to 73.38 MPa. According to the results of the failure analysis, fracture mode transformation was considered as the basic reason for this phenomenon. The increasing sintering pressure promoted the bonding of the nano-Ag particles during the sintering process. Consequently, the fracture of the sintered-Ag layer transformed from brittle fracture to ductile fracture because of the increasing sintering pressure. The delamination area between Cu and Ni layers coated on the bottom Mo plate was clearly enlarged with the increasing sintering pressure. The delamination between Cu and Ni layers coated on the bottom Mo plate turned to be the main failure mode when the sintering pressure was higher than 10 MPa.