Electrically conductive adhesives for surface mount solder replacement

Electrically conductive adhesives offer a lead free, relatively low temperature process for attachment of surface mount components to printed circuit boards (PCB´s). The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) Conductive Adhesives project has defined a requirement for an isotropically conductive adhesive (ICA). In this study, 25 commercially available silver-filled epoxies were evaluated for joint resistance stability on copper and tin/lead surface finishes after 500 h of 85°C/85% RH aging. Mechanical properties were evaluated through lap shear and impact testing. This testing led to a set of requirements for a surface mount adhesive including a volume resistivity of 1 mΩ-cm, less than a 20% shift in resistance after aging, and the ability to pass six drops with a plastic leaded chip carrier (PLCC) 44 package from a height of 1.52 m (60 in). Promising candidate adhesives identified in the screening study were evaluated on a circuit board test vehicle with a variety of components. Assembly revealed a narrow processing window when compared to solder. Impact testing demonstrated that current materials have inadequate impact strength for many components and accelerated T/H aging reveals unstable electrical resistance with Sn/Pb finished components. Preliminary data is included on a new adhesive formulation that has been developed to address the shortcomings of currently available ICAs