Glass transition temperature of nanoparticle-enhanced and environmentally stressed conductive adhesive materials for electronics assembly

Abstract

In our paper, the characterization of glass transition temperature (Tg) was performed for one- and two-component electrically conductive adhesive used in electronic joining technologies. Both adhesives were of the epoxy type with the silver filler. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was used to measure the Tg. The adhesives were modified with nanoparticles, namely, carbon nanotubes (concentration of 0.5 and 0.8% by weight) and silver nanoballs (2.5% by weight). The values of Tg were determined from the plot of the Tg δ parameter. Two types of environmental stresses were used for climatic aging: 125 °C/56% RH and 85 °C/85% RH. The aging of the samples at 125 °C and 56% RH caused increase Tg for all formulations. The cause of these changes is additional curing of adhesive. Aging in the combined climate 85 °C/85% RH caused a shift in Tg toward lower values for formulations based on the one-component adhesive modified by CNT and toward higher values for all other formulations. The major cause of the decrease in Tg was that CNT inhered the curing reactions and banned them from completion. In cases where Tg grew, glue hardening take place. DMA was performed to examine Tg of the samples. The DMA measurements were carried out up to 200 °C. Repeated DMA measurement confirmed that this measurement caused additional hardening and increase Tg for all samples. The results will contribute to the use of conductive adhesives with better quality and reliability in electronics manufacturing.