Study of nanosilver filled conductive adhesives and pastes for electronics packaging

This research deals with the investigation of novel nanosilver filled conductive adhesives and pastes for application in electronics packaging. Compared to conventional soldering-based interconnection technology, electrical conductive adhesives are believed to have the following advantages: finer pitch capability, lower processing temperature requirements, more environmentally friendly than lead-containing solders. The intention of this research is to investigate the application of silver nanoparticles in conductive adhesives and pastes with an objective to improve the desired properties such as electrical conductivity and mechanical stability. Silver has the highest room temperature electrical and thermal conductivity among all metals. It is expected that adhesives with nanosilver will show higher conductivity due to better sintering and that is why the influence of curing temperature on electrical properties of the adhesives and pastes was also investigated. The dependence of resistivity and curing temperatures was shown. Resistivity was measured and compared for different adhesives and pastes: 1) conventional samples without nanoparticles, 2) mixes which contain both micro- and nanoparticles and 3) only with silver nanoparticles.