Fatigue and Creep Properties of Sintered Ag Paste from Room Temperature to High Temperature

Abstract

Sinter silver (Ag) paste has been considered as promising joint materials for SiC and GaN power modules due to its excellent thermo-stability and high electrical/thermal conductivity. Here, we investigated the mechanical properties of sintered Ag paste including fatigue and creep from room temperature to high temperature (≥200 °C), which strongly related with reliability and lift time of power modules. At the room temperature, the sample did not break even at 10 to the 6th power when the stress amplitude was less than 4 MPa. From the S-N curve, the fatigue is close to the Morrow equation but not is the Coffin–Manson law. In addition, in the case of high temperature test (200 °C), the fracture behavior is different with room temperature, large deformation appeared at the necking part of the sintered Ag paste for both fatigue and creep test.