High temperature viscoplastic deformation behavior of sintered nanocopper paste used in power electronics packaging: Insights from constitutive and multi-scale modelling

As a promising technology for high-power and high-temperature power electronics packaging, nanocopper (nanoCu) paste sintering has recently received increasing attention as a die-attachment. The high-temperature deformation of sintered nanoCu paste and its underlying mechanisms challenge the reliability of high-power electronics packaging. In this study, the tensile deformation behaviors of sintered nanoCu paste were firstly characterized by high-temperature tensile tests performed at various temperatures and strain rates ranging from 180 °C to 360 °C, 1 × 10−4 s−1 to 1 × 10−3 s−1 respectively. It was found that the elastic modulus and tensile strength decreased at the higher tensile temperature while the ductility increased accordingly. The highest elastic modulus and tensile strength results were 12.15 GPa and 46.97 MPa, respectively. Second, failure analysis was conducted based on the fracture surface after tensile testing. Recrystallization was revealed as the main factor for ductility improvement. Subsequently, an Anand model was fitted by stress-strain curves to describe the tensile constitutive behavior of the sintered nanoCu paste. Multi-scale modelling techniques also investigated the impact of tensile temperature and strain rate on the tensile response. Molecular dynamics simulation was implemented using a hemispherical Cu nanoparticle model to reveal the properties from an atomistic perspective. In addition, a two-dimensional equivalent model was further established by using a stochastically distributed void morphology. The multi-scale modelling techniques successfully describe the evolution of tensile response to the different tensile temperatures and strain rates. Besides, the equivalent model with random void morphology was demonstrated as the finite element simulation results were highly consistent with the high-temperature tensile experiments.