Study on preparation and properties of epoxy resin modified by amine-terminated polyimide as electronic packaging materials

In this research, epoxy resin was modified by amine-terminated polyimide (ATPI) prepolymer for improving both thermal and mechanical properties of electronic packaging materials. The ATPI was synthesized with polyester and pyromellitic dianhydride (PMDA), p-toluene sulphonic acid (PTSA) as catalyst and characterized by FT-IR spectrum and DSC. The ATPI modified epoxy resin (AME) was cured by 4, 4-diaminodiphenyl ether (DDE). The cure behaviors of the modified resins were investigated with Rheometer analyzer (RA). The thermal stability of the cured materials (AMEe) were studied with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermo-mechanical analyzer (TMA). The results show that ATPI is fusible at about 135°C and has good curing activity as prepolymer for epoxy resin. The decomposition temperature of AMEe materials is above 390°C in nitrogen atmosphere, which is increased by 40°C compared with that of unmodified epoxy resin and the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the AMEe materials are lower than that of unmodified resin apparently. The morphology of AMEe materials was also evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigation of fracture surface. The results show that AMEe materials exhibit better heat resistance and toughness than unmodified epoxy resin, which are suitable for electronic packaging materials.