Evolution mechanism of photonically sintered nano-silver conductive patterns

Abstract

Flash sintering is the most promising sintering method because of its high speed and large area of effect. However, current flash sintering processes exhibit poor stability and the conductive pattern surface is highly susceptible to damage during this process. Therefore, a sintering parameter prediction system must be established to optimize sintering parameters for manufacturing. In this study, a photon-sintered nano-silver particle model is proposed for studying the sintering characteristics of metal nanoparticles. The temperature field of the sintering area is obtained using the heat transfer formula and the sintered neck state, and the conductive pattern density of the nano-silver particles are obtained by employing the fluid dynamics finite element method. The conductive pattern’s structural density and conductivity are determined using the electronic state density and potential distribution of the crystal structure. The sintering state is then predicted based on the sintering parameters. The simulation results are consistent with conductive patterns corresponding to different sintering degrees observed using an electron microscope. The results of this study provide reference sintering parameters for flash sintering with effective cost reduction.