Reliability of advanced thermal interface technologies based on sintered die-attach materials

This paper proposes a guideline for the mechanical acceleration of end-of-lifetime prognostics of metal based thermal interfaces. As die attach material, we used an advanced nano-effect sintered silver layer as interface between die and steel substrate which has very good electrical and thermal conductivities. Two types of experiments/simulations are scheduled. A mechanical 4-pt bending experiment to cause the specimens to undergo fatigue failure rapidly as well as a thermal strain induced fatigue by thermal cycling for comparison. The manufactured specimens are designed to be used for both. With a Finite Element (FE)-model it is possible to simulate the accumulated von Mises strain as failure parameter to generate a lifetime model. Most of the work is currently in progress and results will be delivered soon as full paper.