Thermo-Mechanical Measurement Approach of Ag-sintered Joints for Power Electronics

The authors have realized a measurement approach for the determination of thermal-mechanical characteristics of real silver-sinter joints under shear load conditions. The paper present the developed and optimized measurement setup and the manufacturing process of the lap shear based specimen with a comparatively very high stand-off of one Ag-sinter joint. Further the performed characterization routine which allows the determination of time, temperature and process depended mechanical characteristics. With the successfully produced specimen samples a first cyclic deformation experiment were carried out. For this purpose one sample were loaded with constant deformation speeds between 0.01 mm/s and 1 mm/s to amplitudes of ±3 mm. With increasing temperatures up to 200 °C the measured forces amplitudes decrease and the force-displacement-hystereses show an increasingly ductile deformation behaviour.