Delayed mechanical failure of silver-interlayer diffusion bonds

Abstract

Silver-interlayer diffusion bonds were fabricated using planar-magnetron sputtering (PMS). The bonds exhibit very high tensile strengths, despite the soft interlayer, because of the constraint by the base metal. However, these joints undergo delayed failure at relatively low tensile stresses at ambient temperatures, apparently by a ductile micro void coalescence mechanism at the bond interfaces. Two classes of delayed tensile failure were investigated. In the first case, the applied stress does not produce any plastic deformation in the base metal, and failure appears to be controlled by time-dependent plasticity within the silver interlayer as a result of the effective stress in the interlayer. The plasticity causes cavity nucleation and, eventually, interlinkage and failure. In the second case, time-dependent plasticity is observed in base metals, and concomitant shear occurs within the softer silver under a high triaxial stress state. Here, the timedependent plasticity of the base metal accelerates plasticity and failure in the interlayer. These models were substantiated by careful analyses of the stress and temperature dependence of the rupture times, finite element analysis of the stress state within the interlayer, and microscopy of the fracture surfaces and interfaces loaded to various fractions of the expected rupture times. These findings are applicable to bonds in which the interlayers are prepared by processes other than physical vapor deposition.