Effects of glass on densification and interfacial bonding of LTCC co-fired Ag electrode

In this paper, the effects of particle size and content of glass additive on the sintering densification, interfacial bonding and electrical properties of silver electrode of LTCC were investigated. The particle size of glass powder would mainly affect the densification rate of electrode film and the uniformity of glass phase distribution. The content of glass played a key role in the density of electrode film, the distribution of glass phase and the interface bonding. When the relative content of glass was low, the glass phase could not wet the silver powder effectively. Thus, the silver film was not dense and the interfacial adhesion was weak. When the relative content was too high, there would be too much glass phase at the surface and interior of the electrode film, which would increase the silver film resistance. By adjusting the particle size and relative content of glass, the co-firing compatibility of LTCC and thick film silver electrode could be better realized. When the content of glass additive was 1.0 wt%, the sintered film illustrated the optimum performance of densified microstructure and low sheet resistance of 1.32 mΩ/sq.