Performance and Reliability of

Bonded Interfaces for High-

Temperature Packaging

Douglas DeVoto
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Douglas.DeVoto@nrel.gov
303.275.4256

Team members: Paul Paret and Andrew Wereszczak* (ORNL)

* Jointly funded by the OVT APEEM and OVT Propulsion Materials Programs

DOE Vehicle Technologies Office

Advanced Power Electronics and Electric Motors R&D
FY15 Kickoff Meeting

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge, Tennessee
November 19, 2014
This presentation does not contain any
proprietary or confidential information
NREL/PR-5400-63003
NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
State of the Art
• Current automotive power electronics are transitioning from silicon to
wide bandgap (WBG) devices to meet cost, volume, and weight targets
• Packaging designs must improve to take advantage of WBG devices’
operating parameters:
o Higher operating temperatures
o Higher heat fluxes Terminal
o Hot spots Enclosure

Device
Encapsulant
Interconnect

Die Attach

Substrate
Attach Metalized Substrate

Base Plate

Traditional Power Electronics Package

• Current solder alloys do not meet packaging requirements

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 2

Proposed Technology
• Prior temperature cycling has shown sintered-silver to be
more reliable than Sn63Pb37 solder as a substrate attach
material
• Sintered-silver’s thermal performance makes it an attractive
bonded interface material (BIM) solution: 1,000 Cycles

o High re-melt temperature (962°C)

o High thermal conductivity

35%
Sintered Silver
30%
Sn63Pb37 Solder 1,500 Cycles
25%
Delamination

20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500
Number of Cycles 2,500 Cycles

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 3

Challenges/Barriers to Meet Project Goals
• As operating temperatures increase, the coefficient of thermal expansion
(CTE) mismatch between the substrate and the base plate causes defect
initiation and propagation in the joining layer
CTE (ppm/°C)
Silicon: 2.6
AlN: 4.5
Cooling Si3N4: 3.2
Copper: 16.5
Aluminum: 22.7
Sn63Pb37 Solder: 24.7
Silver: 19.5
Heating

• Sintered-silver reliability has not been documented at 200°C conditions

for the substrate-attach layer
o Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) and NREL’s prior experience
with sintered-silver processing will generate recommended practices
for synthesis of reliable interfaces

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 4

 FY14 Accomplishments
• Identified threshold at which stress intensity factor is
sufficient to cause delamination initiation
o The stress intensity factor is a function of the loading amount,
deformation mode, and the region of interest relative to the crack
tip deformation
o Crack tip deformation can propagate through three modes:
– Tension, KI
– Shear, KII
– Tearing, KIII V-K Curve

V= da/dN, Crack Growth Rate

20
Profile 1
Profile 2
Profile 3
XZ- Shear stress (MPa)

10
(mm/cycle)

-10
-0.40 -0.35 -0.30 -0.25
XZ-Inelastic shear strain K0 KC
KII, Stress Intensity Factor
V= da/dN, crack growth rate (mm/cycle)
K = stress intensity factor
DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 5
FY14 Accomplishments
• Identified threshold at which stress intensity factor is
sufficient to cause delamination initiation
o Measured delamination rate of FY13 sintered-silver samples
o Modeled stress intensity factor with finite element analysis (FEA)

V-K Curve
V= da/dN, Crack Growth Rate
(mm/cycle)

K0 KC

V= da/dN, crack growth rate (mm/cycle)

K = stress intensity factor
DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 6
 FY14 Accomplishments
• Focused on optimizing and understanding key synthesis parameters for
sintered-silver:
1. Identified threshold at which stress intensities are sufficient to cause defect
initiation
2. Evaluated the defect region where a transient delamination rate occurs
3. Evaluated the defect region where a constant slope delamination rate
occurs

35% 7
2 1

Delamination Distance (mm)

30% 6

25% 5
Delamination

20% 4
Quadrant 1
3 4
15% 3 Quadrant 2
3 Quadrant 3
10% 2
5% 1 2 Quadrant 4
1
0% 0
0 1,000 2,000 3,000 0 1,000 2,000
Number of Cycles Number of Cycles

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 7

FY14 Accomplishments
• Processed CTE-mismatched disk samples with various diameter bond pads
to validate stress intensity factor relationship with delamination initiation

CTE 1 CTE 1 CTE 1

CTE 2 CTE 2 CTE 2

• Invar and copper were selected for round test coupons

o Coupon dimensions are 25.4 mm in diameter, 2 mm in thickness
o Materials were chosen for CTE mismatch
o Surfaces were blanchard ground and metalized with silver

Invar Copper

Metalized Invar Metalized Copper

Invar and Copper Test Coupons
DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 8
FY14 Accomplishments

Quarter symmetry model Crack modeled in interface layer

• Fracture-mechanics-based crack modeling adopted

for sintered-silver
• Crack size and location needs to be known in advance
• An elliptical crack is built in the area of interest before
solving
• Mesh re-adjusts to a denser grid around the crack
accordingly

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 9

FY14 Accomplishments
• K values for each crack mode at a
given location are obtained
o Stress intensity factor (K) is a parameter
that describes the stress field near a
crack tip
• Stress is infinite at the crack tip
• K values at different locations along
the crack propagation path can be
obtained

K versus distance along crack contour

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 10
FY14 Accomplishments

Quarter symmetry models to replicate crack propagation

• Crack is modeled at greater incremental distances from

the far corner
• Crack propagates when K > Kcritical
• Geometry is manually changed as propagation cannot be
modeled
DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 11
FY15 Tasks to Achieve Key Deliverable
2014 2015

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep

Go/
No-Go

Process CTE mismatched Perform accelerated life

disk samples with various testing and reliability
diameter bond pads characterization

Process shear-stress Perform shear testing

samples
ORNL

Model stress intensity factor

NREL with FEA and fit V-K curve to Key
disk sample results Deliverable

Go/No-Go: Do bonds meet minimum strength requirements?

Key Deliverable: Publish V-K curve for sintered-silver

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 12

 FY15 Tasks
• Subject round samples to accelerated temperature testing:
o –40°C to 200°C thermal shock
o 175°C and 250°C temperature elevation
• Monitor delamination rates through acoustic microscopy

Temperature Test Conditions

300
Temperature (°C)

200

100 CTE 1

0 CTE 2

-100
0 10 20 30
Time (min)

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 13

FY15 Tasks
• Synthesize and shear test initial samples for mechanical characterization
of sintered-silver
o Attempt to measure residual stress at room temperature
o Estimate stress-strain curves
o Use information to model plastic deformation
• Sintered-silver interfaces are bonded between direct bond copper
substrates

Proposed Sample

Shear Test Fixture and

Sample

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 14

FY15 Tasks

• Evaluate material properties

o Stress-strain curves obtained from shear testing
o Compare temperature-dependent material properties of
bulk versus sintered-silver
• Establish confidence in stress intensity factor results
o How does ANSYS compute K?
o Onset of plasticity – elastic plastic fracture mechanics
o Develop crack propagation modeling
• Establish V-K curve for sintered-silver

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 15

 FY16 Tasks
• Evaluate the delamination rate of sintered-silver test coupons
under various pressure requirements, bond pad geometries,
and surface plating materials

Evaluate low- and no-pressure Optimize pad geometries for a Recommend industry standard
sintered-silver materials large-area bond pad practices for plating

Recommended Synthesis Plating

Ag, Au
25 Material
Pressure
None, substrate
20
Pressure (MPa)

Cleaning cleaning, pre-

15 oxidation

10
5
0

Poor Ag Plating

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 16

 Project Summary
Project Duration: FY14 – FY16
Overall Objective: Provide data to support broad industry demand for improving sintered-silver
reliability.
FY14 Focus: Identify threshold at which stress intensities are sufficient to cause defect initiation.
Deliverable: Publish defect initiation findings for sintered-silver.
Go/No-Go: Can threshold stress before delamination initiation be defined?
FY15 Focus: Evaluate the delamination rate of sintered-silver round test coupons, update sintered-silver material
properties from shear testing, and develop V-K curves through modeling.
Deliverable: Publish V-K curve for sintered-silver.
Go/No-Go: Do bonds meet minimum strength requirements?
FY16 Focus: Evaluate the delamination rate of sintered-silver test coupons under various parameters and develop
correlation between interface patterning/degradation and junction temperature rise.
Deliverable: Defect initiation and progression as a function of sintered-silver material and bonding parameters.
Go/No-Go: Adjust bonding parameters to meet minimum shear strength.

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 17

Technology-to-Market Plan
• This research is on the path to commercialization of high-temperature
bonded interface materials
o Coordinates with industry suppliers of sintered-silver-based interface
material
o Addresses key barrier to improve thermal performance of power
electronics package under high-temperature operation
o Will impact manufacturing parameters of sintered-silver material for
large-area substrate attachment
• Research directly impacts industry needs for high-temperature attach
solutions
• Research focuses on achieving targets of a low-cost, high temperature
(200°C) power electronics package with 15-year rated lifetime

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 18

Partners/Collaborators

• ORNL: technical partner on sintered-silver samples

• Fraunhofer: modeling collaboration

• Henkel: sintered-silver material guidance
• Heraeus: sintered-silver material guidance
• General Motors: technical guidance

DOE APEEM FY15 Kickoff Meeting 19

Acknowledgments:
Susan Rogers and Steven Boyd
U.S. Department of Energy
Team Members:
Paul Paret
Andrew Wereszczak* (ORNL)
* Jointly funded by the OVT APEEM and
OVT Propulsion Materials Programs
For more information, contact:
Principal Investigator
Douglas DeVoto
Douglas.DeVoto@nrel.gov
Phone: (303) 275-4256
APEEM Task Leader
Sreekant Narumanchi
Sreekant.Narumanchi@nrel.gov
Phone: (303) 275-4062