Top Three Uses of Silver Sintering Paste With technological advances happening everywhere in the world across all industries, the electronics sector has not been left untouched. The most important process in any electronics assembly – the designing and manufacture of printed circuit boards – has been consistently evolving over the past few decades. Progress has been noted ever since leaded solder alloys were no longer safe for the users and environment. Lead-free solders were invented and used in many specialized soldering applications. Now, sintering has been developed, which is an entirely new technique of achieving a conductive bond between two surfaces. In this article, you will read about sintering and the top three uses of silver sintering paste. What is sintering? Sintering is a technique where, instead of melting the metal to conductively join two surfaces together, it is pressurized or heated directly into a solid state. Typically, a powdered metal is mixed in an organic medium to form a paste. This paste is then deposited on the substrate to be printed, much like you would do with a solder paste. After depositing, the entire assembly is placed under a die and into a contraption that allows application of heat and pressure simultaneously without breaking anything. Under the combined action of heat and pressure, the metal in the paste fuses together the surfaces to be joined – all without melting and converting directly into a solid. Top three uses of sintering Sintering is still an evolving technology which hasn’t been explored completely, and yet it has found some highly important applications in the electronics industry. •Sintering is used in high temperature applications. Devices which have high operating temperatures typically require high temperature solders. There has to be a safe gap between operating and melting points of all the components involved to ensure safe operation. Sintering uses high temperature metals which work well with high temperature applications. • Silver sintering is highly suitable for use in flexible electronics, including printing flat panels, disposable microelectronics and plastics. • Silver sintering can be used in specialized applications requiring high precision and conductivity bonds. Silver is a good thermal and electrical conductor, making it a suitable metal for sensitive bonding applications. Silver sintering paste is still a new material for soldering processes, and is still being studied. Its benefits still far outweigh all other hindrances faced, like the cost of silver.
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