Microwave assisted processing of silver thick films for microelectronic applications

Abstract

This paper aims to focus on the microwave processing of thick films which is a fast, cheap technique and could be the alternative to the currently used conventional high temperature processing technique. Microwave processing has gained worldwide acceptance as a novel method for heating and sintering a variety of materials, as it offers specific advantages in terms of speed, energy efficiency, process simplicity, finer microstructures and lower environmental hazards. Silver conducting thick films were prepared and processed in the household microwave oven. The films sintered at different time period by keeping the other parameter such as microwave power, film thickness etc constant. The microstructure analysis revealed that the surface morphology of the microwave processed films become compact with respect to the processing time. The sheet resistance for microwave sintered silver films is in the range of 0.003 to 1.207 Ω /  where as the films fired at 750 and 850 o C showed the resistance of 0.009 and 0.003 Ω/ which can be comparable. The results revealed that the microstructure of the microwave sintered films has more uniform and compact surface than that of the conventionally fired films. The paper reports upon the preparation of silver thick film by screen printing technique and processing the same by microwave which also compared with the conventionally processed thick films.