Articles
All articles | Recent articles
Effect of Repeated Firing on the Resistance of Screen-Printed Thick-Film Conductors
D. Ortolino, A. Engelbrecht, H. Lauterbach, M. Bräu, J. Kita, R. Moos
Department of Functional Materials, University of Bayreuth, Germany
received July 24, 2014, received in revised form October 1, 2014, accepted October 6, 2014
Vol. 5, No. 4, Pages 317-326 DOI: 10.4416/JCST2014-00029
Abstract
In this paper, the effect of repeated sintering cycles on the resistance of four different thick-film conductor pastes was investigated. Silver, gold, silver-platinum and silver-palladium pastes are widely used in thick-film technology. Their electrical resistance (R) and their temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) are important material properties. Screen-printed metallization layers were fired repeatedly and their electrical resistance was measured simultaneously during heating and cooling. It was found that the resistances change with increasing number of firing steps and that they run asymptotically to a final value. Light-optical and SEM-EDX analyses explained this behavior. Inorganic compounds of the paste diffuse into the ceramic substrate. The diffusion follows a parabolic diffusion law. A strong correlation between material diffusion and resistance change is found.
Download Full Article (PDF)
Keywords
Thick-film, screen-printing, conductor, gold, silver, silver-palladium, silver-platinum, resistance, TCR, temperature cycling, firing, sintering, material diffusion
References
1 Prudenziati, M.: Thick-film technology, Sensor. Actuat. A, 25 – 27, 227 – 234, (1991).
2 White, N.M., Turner, J.D., Thick-film sensors: past, present and future, Meas. Sci. Technol., 8, 1 – 20, (1997).
3 Bartsch de Torres, H., Rensch, C., Fischer, M., Schober, A., Hoffmann, M., Müller, J.: Thick film flow sensor for biological microsystems, Sens. Actuat. A, 160, 109 – 115, (2010).
4 Schubring, A., Sarma, D.H.R., Webster, M.E.: Wirebonding on multilayer circuits for automotive applications using robust thick-film conductors, In: Proceedings of the 1998 International Symposium on Microelectronics, San Diego, CA., 1998
5 Fairchild, M.R., Snyder, R.B., Berlin, C.W., Sarma, D.H.R.: Emerging substrate technologies for harsh-environment automotive electronics applications, SAE Technical Paper 2002 – 01 – 1052, (2002).
6 Ortolino, D., Kita, J., Wurm, R., Blum, E., Beart, K., Moos, R.: Investigation of the short-time high-current behavior of vias manufactured in hybrid thick-film technology, Microelectron. Reliab., 34, 1257 – 263 (2011)
7 Moos, R.: A brief overview on automotive exhaust gas sensors based on electroceramics, Int. J. Appl. Ceram. Technol., 2, 401 – 413, (2005).
8 Riegel, J., Neumann, H., Wiedenmann, H.-M.: Exhaust gas sensors for automotive emission control, Solid State Ionics, 152 – 153, 783 – 800, (2002).
9 Naguib, H.M., MacLaurin, B.K.: Silver migration and the reliability of Pd/Ag conductors in thick-film dielectric crossover structures, IEEE T. Compon. Hybr., 2, 196 – 207, (1979).
10 Lienig, J., Jerke, G., Adler, T.: Electromigration avoidance in analog circuits: two methodologies for current-driven routing, Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on VLSI Design (VLSID 02), Bangalore, India, 2002
11 Jerke, G., Lienig, L.: Hierarchical current-density verification in arbitrarily shaped metallization patterns of analog circuits, IEEE T. Comput. Aid. D., 23, 80 – 90, (2004).
12 Lin, J.-C., Chuang, J.-Y.: Resistance to silver electrolytic migration for Thick-Film conductors prepared from mixed and alloyed powders of Ag-15Pd and Ag-30Pd, J. Electrochem. Soc., 144, 1652 – 1659, (1997).
13 Cawley, J.D., Lee, W.E.: Oxide ceramics. materials science and technology, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2006.
14 Reichl, H.: Hybrid integration: technology and design of thick-film circuits, (in German), Dr. Alfred Hüthig Verlag GmbH, 1988
15 Cattaneo, A., Cocito, M., Forlani, F., Prudenziati, M.: Influence of the metal migration from Screen-and-fired terminations on the electrical characteristics of thick-film resistors, Electrocomponent Sci. Technol., 4, 205 – 211, (1977).
16 Yajima, K.-I., Yamaguchi, T.: Sintering and microstructure development of glass-bonded silver thick films, J. Mater. Sci., 19, 777 – 784, (1984).
17 Yajima, K.-I., Yamaguchi, T.: A further study on the microstructure of glass-bonded ag thick-film conductors, IEEE T. Compon. Hybr., 7, 281 – 285, (1984).
18 Lin, J.C., Wu, W.: On the sintering of mixed and alloyed silver-palladium powders from chemical coprecipitation, Mater. Chem. Phys., 40, 110 – 118, (1995).
19 Rane, S.B., Seth, T.G., Phatak, J., Amalnerkar, D.P., Das, B.K.: Influence of surfactants treatment on silver powder and its thick films, Mater. Lett., 57, 3096 – 3100, (2003).
20 Lin, J.C., Wang, C.Y.: Effect of surface properties of silver powder on the sintering of its thick-film conductor, Mater. Chem. Phys., 45, 253 – 261, (1996).
21 Dziedzic, A., Nowak, D.: Thick-film and LTCC passive components for high-temperature electronics, Radioengineering, 22, 218 – 226, (2013).
22 Zhang, R., Johnson, R.W., Vert, A., Zhang, T., Shaddock, D.: Failure mechanism in thick film materials for 300 °C operation, IEEE T. Compon. Pack., 2, 1750 – 1758, (2012).
23 Nowak, D., Stafiniak, A., Dziedzic, A.: Analysis of electromigration phenomenon in thick-film and LTCC structures at elevated temperature, Mater. Sci. Poland, 32, 247 – 251, (2014).
24 Model 2700 Multimeter/Switch System, User's Manual, Keithley Instruments, Issue 2700 – 900 – 01 Rev. F (2002) S. 121 ff.
25 Taylor, B.E., Felten, J.F., Larry, J.R.: Progress in and technology of low-cost silver containing thick-film conductors, IEEE T. Compon. Hybr., 3, 504 – 517, (1980).
26 Coleman, M.: Ageing mechanisms and stability in thick film resistors, Microelectron. Int., 1, 36 – 41, (1984).
27 Wang, S.F., Huebner, W., Huang, C.: Correlation of subsolidus phase relations in the Ag–Pd–O system to oxidation reduction kinetics and dilametric behavior, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 75, 2232 – 2239, (1992).
28 Cole Jr, S.S.: Oxidation and reduction of palladium in the presence of silver, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 68, 106 – 107, (1985).
29 Szafránski, A.W.: Influence of hydrogen on electron transport of palladium alloyed with silver, J. Alloy. Compd., 395, 36 – 40, (2005).
30 Garino, T., Rodriguez, M.: Behavior of silver and palladium mixtures during heating, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 83, 2709 – 2714, (2000).
31 Merkel, M., Thomas, K.-H.: Materials manual, (in German). 7th edition. Carl Hanser Verlag, 2008, S. 130 ff.
32 Burnside, S. et al..: Deposition and characterization of screen-printed porous multi-layer thick film structures from semiconducting and conducting nanomaterials for use in photovoltaic devices, J. Mater. Sci. - Mater. Electron., 11, 355 – 362, (2000).
Copyright
Göller Verlag GmbH
