Sintering Methods
A sintering method for joining at least two components is provided. The method includes disposing a conductive paste on a first component. The conductive paste includes a metal powder dispersed in an organic vehicle. The metal powder has a D50 ranging from about 200 nm to about 500 nm. The method includes drying the conductive paste to form a dried conductive paste and disposing a second component on the dried conductive paste to form a component arrangement. The method includes sintering the component arrangement without applying external pressure to the component arrangement. Electronic articles are also provided.
1 . A sintering method for joining at least two components, the method comprising:
disposing a conductive paste on a first component, the conductive paste comprising:
a metal powder dispersed in an organic vehicle, the metal powder having a D50 ranging from about 200 nm to about 500 nm;
drying the conductive paste to form a dried conductive paste;
disposing a second component on the dried conductive paste to form a component arrangement; and
sintering the component arrangement without applying external pressure to the component arrangement.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein drying the conductive paste comprises exposing the conductive paste to a drying temperature of between about 80° C. and 150° C. for a time period of about 1 minute to about 60 minutes.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein disposing the conductive paste on the first component comprises printing the conductive paste on the first component.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein disposing a second component on the dried metal paste comprises disposing the first component having the dried metal paste thereon on a bottom of a die, the bottom of the die having a temperature ranging from about 125° C. to about 200° C.; disposing the second component on a top of the die, the top of the die having a temperature ranging from about 150° C. to about 225° C.; and pressing the first component and second component together at a pressure of about 0.1 MPa to about 10 MPa for a time period of about 0.1 seconds to about 20 seconds.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein sintering the component arrangement comprises exposing the component arrangement to a sintering temperature ranging from about 200° C. to about 300° C. for a sintering time of about 1 minute to about 120 minutes.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the component arrangement exhibits a shear strength of at least about 10 MPa to about 150 MPa.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein particles in the metal powder contain a coating.
8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the coating comprises one or more lipids.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the one or more lipids comprise one or more fatty acids.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal powder comprises a D90 of from about 250 nm to about 930 nm.
11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal powder comprises a D10 of from about 150 nm to about 300 nm.
12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal powder comprises silver.
13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least 60% of the metal powder comprises spherical particles.
14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein after sintering, the metal powder has an Ig-loss of from about 0.5% to about 0.75%.
15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein after sintering, a fillet is formed on a sidewall of the chip from the conductive paste, wherein the fillet has a height of less than about 30 μm.
16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the organic vehicle comprises a solvent and a polymer.
17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the conductive paste comprises from about 1 wt. % to about 20 wt. % of solvent.
18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the conductive paste comprises from about 0.6 wt. % to about 1 wt. % of the polymer.
19 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the conductive paste comprises from about 70 wt. % to about 98 wt. % of the conductive material.
20 . An electronic article comprising a semiconductor chip sintered to a substrate with a conductive paste comprising a metal powder dispersed in an organic vehicle, the metal powder having a D50 ranging from about 200 nm to about 500 nm.