Effect of elastic recovery on the electrical contact resistance in anisotropic conductive adhesive assemblies

The successful design of anisotropic conductive adhesive (ACA) assemblies depends mainly on the accurate prediction of their electrical contact resistance. Among the parameters that influence this resistance, the bonding force used to compress the conductive particles against the conductive tracks during the assembly process is very important. This paper investigates how the contact resistance changes as the bonding force is removed at the end of the assembly process when the epoxy resin used to bond the surfaces has cured. The final contact resistance is determined by examining, through theoretical, experimental and numerical analyzes, the evolution of the residual stress as the elastic recovery of the compressed conductive particles and tracks takes place when the bonding force is removed. An iterative algorithm derived from methods found in fracture mechanics analysis is used to determine the relationship between the contact resistance, the adhesive strength and the stiffness of the cured resin. It is shown that smaller values of adhesive strength yield higher contact resistance values; and similarly, smaller values of modulus of elasticity of the resin lead to higher contact resistance values.