The effects of pressure, temperature, and depth/diameter ratio on the microvia filling performance of Ag-coated Cu micro-nanoparticles for advanced electronic packaging

ABSTRACT Conductive fillers made from metal nanoparticles offer many advantages for the fabrication of a variety of electronic devices, but when they have a porous structure, their poor conductivity limits their adoption in many applications. In this study, an Ag-coated Cu micro-nanoparticle paste is used to achieve compact filling of blind vias on flexible copper clad polyimide laminates through a multistep filling and sintering technique. The filled blind vias achieve a resistivity as low as 6.2 μΩ·cm, which is comparable that of electroplated blind vias. Higher sintering pressure and temperature promote the filling performance, while the conductivity deteriorates at a via depth/diameter ratio greater than 1:1. Finite element simulations reveal a stress inhomogeneity in vias with large depth/diameter ratios, which is the key to understanding the evolution of the conductive properties of a paste-filled via. This study provides an effective method for high-performance microvia filling as well as insights into the mechanism that influences its performance. Graphical abstract