Abstract
The phenomenon of silver migration in conductor‐insulator systems is well known, but it is less known that several other metals can exhibit migration. This paper tries to give a short summary of the phenomenon as applied to thick‐film circuits.Tests have been made on different conductors used in thick‐film circuits. The dendrites formed by electrochemical migration were examined by scanning electron microscope, and also by wavelength‐dispersive analysis of the emitted x‐rays. By obtaining secondary and back‐scattered electron images, x‐ray maps and profiles, it can be determined which components cause migration in the conductor in question.Photos are presented illustrating the results.Thermal Humidity Bias test was also performed in controlled environmental chambers in order to get a comparison between different thick film systems.
Highlights
In the production of large scale thick-film ICs, the claim that conductors can be produced with very good line resolution and high reliability has been made.When using gaps narrower than 0.2 mm, reliability problems can occur
It is possible that ion migration causes resistive shorts between neighbouring metallization stripes, and this leads to the breakdown of the circuit
After a short summary describing the basic aspects ofthe electro-chemical processes that cause failures, investigations on short-circuits caused by electro migration in thickfilm microcircuits using different conductor compositions are reported in this paper
Summary
In the production of large scale thick-film ICs, the claim that conductors can be produced with very good line resolution and high reliability has been made. When using gaps narrower than 0.2 mm, reliability problems can occur. It is possible that ion migration causes resistive shorts between neighbouring metallization stripes, and this leads to the breakdown of the circuit. After a short summary describing the basic aspects ofthe electro-chemical processes that cause failures, investigations on short-circuits caused by electro migration in thickfilm microcircuits using different conductor compositions are reported in this paper. The purpose was to determine how the potential reliability problems can be minimized
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