Microstructural evolution, fracture behavior and bonding mechanisms study of copper sintering on bare DBC substrate for SiC power electronics packaging

Robust bonding of Cu quasi-nanoparticles sintering for Ag coated chip and bare copper substrate was achieved. The effect of temperature, pressure and time on the sintering bonding strength and microstructural evolution was deeply studied. 36.5 MPa shear strength was achieved when applied 5 MPa pressure. By increasing to 30 MPa, it shows the best die shear strength of 116 MPa, accomplished with a sintering temperature of 250 °C for 3 min. Temperature also influenced the shear strength a lot. Between 210 °C and 230 °C can already provide strength over 30 MPa. When increased to 270 °C, the strength was extremely enhanced to over 120 MPa. Inspection on the fracture behaviors and cross-section of sheared off samples was conducted by SEM, EDS, and XRD. It is found that low bonding performance is due to both of the incomplete burnt out of organics and incomplete Cu QNPs sintering. In addition, high bonding is account for the positive effect of pressure and temperature on promoting the necking growth, sintering networking formation, pores isolation and brittle-ductile fracture transformation. The recommended sintering profile is 250 °C, 3 min, 20 MPa. Finally, the feasibility for SiC MOSFET power electronics DA was verified by testing its static characteristics at both room temperature and 150 °C.