title: Electrochemical migration characteristics of screen-printed silver patterns on FR-4 substrate.
abstract: We evaluated the electrical reliability of screen-printed silver (Ag) patterns sintered at various temperatures under variable bias voltages. Comb-type patterns were screen-printed onto a flame resistance-4 substrate using a commercial Ag nanopaste (24 nm in diameter, 73 wt% of Ag nanoparticles). The printed patterns were then sintered for 30 min in air at various temperatures ranging from 100 degrees C to 200 degrees C. The microstructures and thickness profiles of the sintered conductive patterns were identified with a field emission scanning electron microscope and a 3-D surface profiler, respectively. In this study, the phenomenon of electrochemical migration was investigated with a water drop test with deionized water. These results showed that the time required by dendrites to bridge from a cathode to an anode was affected by the sintering temperature and applied voltage; when the sintering temperature was 200 degrees C, the time to achieve a short circuit was nearly four times that of the sample sintered at 100 degrees C, and while the applied voltage increased from 3 V to 9 V, the time to reach a short circuit decreased, on average, by 11%.
authors: SKKU Advanced Institute of Nanotechnology (SAINT), Sungkyunkwan University, 300 Cheoncheon-Dong, Jangan-Gu, Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea.
authors: Kwang-Seok
authors: KS
authors: Kim
authors: Jee-Hyuk
authors: JH
authors: Ahn
authors: Bo-In
authors: BI
authors: Noh
authors: Seung-Boo
authors: SB
authors: Jung