Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles paste for high temperature service in power devices.

In this paper, high strength Cu−Cu interconnections were achieved by sintering the paste of Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles at low temperature. Compared with nano-Ag paste, the outer Sn coatings of the nano-Ag particles were found to be favorable for the densification of the bondline. The microstructures of Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles and the bondlines under different sintereing conditions were studied in detail by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles bondline exhibit a high shear strength of 35.3 MPa and a low resistivity of 9.5 μΩcm, when sintered at 260 °C for 20 min under a pressure of 0.5 MPa. The electrochemical migration time of this sintered Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles was prolonged to be ten times of that of sintered nano-Ag. This bonding technology based on Ag-Sn bimetallic nanoparticles was a promising die attach method for high temperature power device packaging.