SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 January 1978
STP38634S

Adhesion Measurements on Thick-Film Conductors

Source

The paper briefly reviews the measurement of adhesion of conductor film materials and describes in particular the requirements of thick-film technology. The test methods used to measure thick-film adhesion strength, which have been previously described by other workers, are treated from a fundamental basis and are discussed with reference to the usefulness and practicability of the test both for research and for more routine purposes.

The second part of the paper reviews two thick-film adhesion tests and their use at RCA Laboratories over the past several years. The first test is the thermocompression bonded peel test, which has been used for the adhesion strength measurement of gold-and silver-based conductor films. This test was developed at RCA and has proved useful for films of a wide range of adhesion strengths.

The second test description reviews RCA Laboratories' use of the soldered-wire, peel test. It also treats our progress in eliminating subjectivity from this test by limiting the use of hand operations and by controlling time-temperature cycles required in the assembly of test specimens. For both these tests, more than one failure mode has been observed. The meanings ascribed both to the failure modes and to test data, which are taken when the modes occur, are treated.

Data illustrating the variation in adhesion strength with firing temperature and film thickness are shown for several ink types. These data are correlated with the composition of the inks by grouping the gold and silver inks into three bonding classifications—fritbonded, reactively bonded, and mixed-bonded.

Author Information

Hitch, TT
David Sarnoff Research Center, RCA Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey
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Details
Developed by Committee: C24
Pages: 211–232
DOI: 10.1520/STP38634S
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-5546-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-0272-9