Mechanical Properties and Reliability of Pressureless Sintered Silver Materials for Power

Abstract:
Pressureless sintered silver layers composed of nano- and micro-sized silver particles with vari-ous nano/micro-sized particle ratios were pre-pared at a temperature of 275 ºC. The materials had a homogenous semi-closed-cell microstruc-ture, consisting of a matrix derived from sintered silver particles and semi-closed pores. Tensile tests showed that the pores were homogenously distributed in the matrix, and that the matrix was stretched by tensile force and then ended being broken to have a dimple structure. The pressure-less-sintered silver layers had high mechanical properties, a maximum tensile strength of 147 MPa and a maximum elongation of 1.3%, and a Young’s modulus of 14 GPa, which was relatively lower than those reported in previous literature. It can be considered that silver nanoparticles pro-vide not only adhesion of micro-sized silver parti-cles, but also act as a matrix for the homogenous semi-closed-cell microstructures.