The Critical Role of Microscopy and Spectroscopy in the Development of New Materials for Microelectronics Packaging

Abstract

It has been over thirty years since sintered aluminum nitride (AIN) has been the focus of many research and development activities in Japan, the U.S., and Europe. Only in the past 5 years has there been significant use of this material in microelectronics. There are many reasons for this considerable time for application including, technology needs and acceptance of a new material. Also important has been the role of materials understanding of AIN through the use of microscopy and spectroscopy. We illustrate the use of both standard and unique characterization techniques to elucidate the nature of the crystalline defects which control the important property of thermal conductivity.The thermal conductivity of pure AIN is 320 W/mK. This value has never been achieved in a sintered ceramic. In order to develop a sintered AIN with a high thermal conductivity it is necessary to understand the factors which control the thermal conductivity.