Two-step flash light sintering of copper nanoparticle ink to remove substrate warping

Abstract

A two-step flash light sintering process was devised to reduce the warping of polymer substrates during the sintering of copper nanoparticle ink. To determine the optimum sintering conditions of the copper nanoparticle ink, the flash light irradiation conditions (pulse power, pulse number, on-time, and off-time) were varied and optimized. In order to monitor the flash light sintering process, in situ resistance and temperature monitoring of copper nanoink were conducted during the flash light sintering process. Also, a transient heat transfer analysis was performed by using the finite-element program ABAQUS to predict the temperature changes of copper nanoink and polymer substrate. The microstructures of the sintered copper nanoink films were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, an X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to characterize the crystal phase change of the sintered copper nanoparticles. The resulting two-step flash light sintered copper nanoink films exhibited a low resistivity (3.81 mu Omega cm, 2.3 times of that of bulk copper) and 5B level of adhesion strength without warping of the polymer substrate.