JP4933998B2 - Conductor paste and thick film circuit board - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a conductor paste filled to provide a through conductor in a through hole opened in a substrate and a thick film circuit board in which the through hole is filled with a conductor to generate a through conductor.

  For example, in a thick film circuit board using a ceramic substrate made of alumina or the like, the substrate is provided with a through hole (that is, a via), and the via is filled with a metal paste to improve the heat dissipation of the substrate. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). Such a heat dissipation via is referred to as a thermal via. A heat sink made of a metal with excellent heat conduction such as aluminum is arranged on the back side of the above board, and heat generated on the front side of the board is guided to the back side via the thermal via and released to the heat sink Sexuality is enhanced.

The improvement of heat dissipation as described above is performed for the purpose of increasing the mounting density of components on the substrate surface, for example. Increasing the mounting density increases the amount of heat generated, but by releasing heat to the back surface of the substrate, it is possible to suppress the temperature rise on the surface of the substrate on which the components are mounted. As a result, it is easy to reduce the size and increase the functionality of the substrate.
JP 2007-027684 A JP 09-046013 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-064332 JP 07-235215 A

  Conventionally, when forming the thermal via, a metal paste containing a metal powder with low sinterability has been used. In order to efficiently release heat, the thermal via needs to be in contact with the back surface of the mounted component on the front surface side and in contact with the heat sink on the back surface side. Therefore, metal powder having low sinterability is used to suppress firing shrinkage of the metal paste, and thus to prevent the thermal via from being recessed from the front and back surfaces of the substrate. Further, if the firing shrinkage of the metal paste is suppressed, there is an advantage that the conductor peeling from the inner wall surface of the via is suppressed.

  As the metal powder, for example, Ag—Pd is used. However, the thermal via paste made of Ag—Pd in which sintering is suppressed has a large resistance value and cannot be used for conductor wiring. Therefore, in order to connect the wiring on the front and back of the substrate, a through hole in which a conductor film is formed on the inner wall surface is provided separately from the thermal via.

  However, in the above-described through hole, a large current cannot flow because the conductor cross-sectional area in the substrate thickness direction is small. For example, a current of about 50 to 60 (A) is desired for an electric power steering (EPS) board of a large vehicle, but the allowable current value of the through hole is only about 1 (A) at most. Therefore, a connection structure capable of flowing a large current, for example, a thermal via that can be used for wiring connection has been desired.

  In addition, it has also been proposed to suppress the firing shrinkage of the metal paste by adding aluminosilicate or the like to the metal paste as an expansion agent or as a shrinkage inhibitor, and to fill a conductor in a through hole for wiring connection. (For example, see Patent Documents 2 to 4.) A large current can be accommodated by filling the through hole with a conductor to increase the cross-sectional area. However, the paste for forming the conductor on the inner wall is markedly baked and shrunk. It will be peeled off. Therefore, it is difficult to increase the cross-sectional area with the conventional paste. If firing shrinkage is suppressed as described in Patent Document 2 and the like, peeling from the inner wall surface can be suppressed.

  However, in the metal pastes described in Patent Documents 2 to 4, a relatively large amount of expansion agent or shrinkage inhibitor is used to suppress shrinkage because the shrinkage rate of the conductor material is large. For this reason, it has been difficult to satisfy shrinkage, conductivity, and thermal conductivity at the same time.

  The present invention has been made in the background of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to form a conductive paste capable of forming a through conductor that has high conductivity and can be used for wiring connection, and the through conductor. Another object of the present invention is to provide a thick film circuit board.

In order to achieve such an object, the subject matter of the first invention is a conductor paste for filling and firing through holes provided in a ceramic substrate, and (a) a silver powder produced by an atomizing method And (b) silicon nitride powder.

  The thick film circuit board according to the second aspect of the invention includes (a) a ceramic substrate having a through hole, and (b) an oxidizing atmosphere from the conductor paste of the first invention filled in the through hole. And a through conductor produced by firing.

According to the first invention, since the silver paste produced by the atomizing method is used as the conductive paste and the silicon nitride powder is contained, the conductive paste is sufficiently suppressed from firing shrinkage. The generated through conductor has high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. Since the silver powder produced by the atomizing method has a spherical shape and low sinterability and contains silicon nitride powder, when such a conductive paste is baked in an oxidizing atmosphere, silicon nitride becomes SiO ₂ by expanding decomposed into N ₂ and prevents the shrinkage of the conductive paste. Therefore, if the paste is filled in the through holes provided in the ceramic substrate and subjected to a firing process in an oxidizing atmosphere, a through conductor that can be used for both thermal vias and wiring connection can be obtained.

  According to the second invention, since the ceramic substrate is provided with the through conductors produced by firing from the conductor paste of the first invention in an oxidizing atmosphere, high conductivity and high thermal conductivity are provided. Thus, a thick film circuit board having through conductors that can be used both as thermal vias and for wiring connection is obtained.

The firing shrinkage when the film thickness after drying T _d, the film thickness after firing was T _f, is a value determined by _{[(T d -T f) /} T d] × 100.

Here, it is preferable that the conductive paste is obtained by dispersing the silver powder and the silicon nitride powder together with an inorganic binder in a vehicle .

  Preferably, the silver powder has an average particle diameter of 1 to 5 (μm). The average particle size of the silver powder is not particularly limited, but if the average particle size is 1 (μm) or more, the sinterability is sufficiently low, so the firing shrinkage rate is sufficiently small, and a through conductor is generated. In this case, peeling from the inner wall surface of the through hole is difficult to occur. If the average particle size is 5 (μm) or less, the contact area between the silver powders is sufficiently large, so that the resistance value of the generated through conductor is sufficiently low. In addition, since the sinterability decreases as the average particle size increases, it is preferable from the viewpoint of suppressing firing shrinkage. However, if the average particle size becomes too large, a three-roll mill generally used for kneading during paste preparation is used. There is also a problem that kneading becomes difficult.

  Preferably, the silicon nitride powder is contained in a range of 2.5 to 10 (%) in terms of mass ratio to the entire paste. If the ratio of the silicon nitride powder is 2.5 (%) or more, firing shrinkage of the paste can be sufficiently suppressed. Moreover, if it is 10 (%) or less, the resistance value of the through conductor to be generated is sufficiently low.

  Preferably, the silicon nitride powder is synthesized by an imide decomposition method. As the silicon nitride powder, those synthesized by various commonly used synthesis methods such as direct nitridation method of metal silicon, silica reduction nitridation method, imide decomposition method, pyrolysis method of organic silicon compound, gas phase reaction method, etc. can be used. However, the imide decomposition method powder is most preferable. For example, when a direct nitriding powder was added, there was a problem that blistering was likely to occur after firing. The reason why blistering occurs is not clear, but it is considered that the silicon nitride powder obtained by the direct nitriding method has a slightly high decomposition temperature and decomposes after the silver powder has been sintered to a considerable extent to generate nitrogen gas.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, the drawings are appropriately simplified or modified, and the dimensional ratios, shapes, and the like of the respective parts are not necessarily drawn accurately.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a cross-sectional structure of a thick film circuit board 12 on which a through conductor 10 is formed with a conductor paste according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the thick film circuit board 12 has an IC 20 fixed to a surface 18 of a substrate 16 on which a plurality of vias 14 each provided with the through conductors 10 are formed, and a heat sink 24 fixed to a back surface 22 thereof. It has been done.

  The substrate 16 is made of alumina, which is often used for thick film circuit boards, for example, and has a thickness dimension of about 0.8 (mm), for example. The via 14 provided in the substrate 16 has a diameter of about 0.2 (mm), for example, and the entire inside thereof is filled with the through conductor 10. That is, the via 14 is filled with the conductor in close contact with the inner wall surface.

  The penetrating conductor 10 has upper and lower end surfaces located on substantially the same plane as the front surface 18 and the back surface 22, respectively. That is, the upper and lower end surfaces of the through conductor 10 are located on the same plane as the front surface 18 and the rear surface 22, or are slightly recessed or slightly protruded. The through conductor 10 is made of, for example, a thick film conductor material. For example, the through conductor 10 has a sufficiently low sheet resistance value of about 6 (mΩ / □), and is composed of silver, an inorganic binder, a filler, and the like, which are conductive components. ing. The inorganic binder is for increasing the adhesive strength with the substrate 16.

  The IC 20 has a planar dimension of, for example, about 5 (mm) × 5 (mm). For example, the IC 20 is fixed to the substrate 16 with solder 26 and is connected to the conductor wiring 28 provided on the surface 18 with wires 30. Electrically connected. Note that a large number of wires 30 are connected according to the number of terminals provided in the IC 20, but only one wire 30 is illustrated in FIG. As shown in a plan view in FIG. 2, the via 14 is provided with a plurality of vias over the entire fixing surface of the IC 20. The thickness dimension of the solder 26 is, for example, about 0.1 (mm).

The conductor wiring 28 is made of a thick film conductor material containing Ag, Ag / Pd, Ag / Pt, Au, or the like as a conductive component, and is provided on the surface 18 with a thickness of, for example, about 5 to 30 (μm). It has been. The conductor wiring 28 is connected to the through conductor 10 filled in the via 14 provided at a position away from the IC 20, and is connected to the conductor wiring 32 provided on the back surface 22 via the through conductor 10. ing. The through conductor 10 disposed immediately below the IC 20 and the through conductor 10 connected to the conductor wiring 28 are made of a common thick film conductor material. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 34 denotes a thick film resistor printed on the substrate 16 and is made of RuO ₂ or the like. Although only one thick film resistor 34 is illustrated in FIG. 1, an appropriate number of thick film resistors 34 is provided according to the purpose of use of the thick film circuit board 12.

  On the back surface 22 of the substrate 16, the end surface of the through conductor 10, the conductor wiring 32, the thick film resistor 34, and the like are covered with a protective layer 36. The protective layer 36 is made of an insulating material such as glass or synthetic resin, and the heat sink 24 is fixed to the substrate 16 with an adhesive layer 38 through the protective layer 36. The heat sink 24 is made of a material having high thermal conductivity and conductivity such as aluminum, and the protective layer 36 is configured to prevent the conductor wiring 32 on the back surface 22 from being short-circuited by the heat sink 24 made of a conductive material. It is for preventing. The thickness dimensions of the protective layer 36 and the adhesive layer 38 are each about 0.1 (mm), for example.

  According to the thick film circuit board 12 configured as described above, the heat generated from the IC 20 or the like mounted on the front surface 18 is on the back surface 22 side via the through conductor 10 in the via 14 provided immediately below. Is transmitted to the heat sink 24. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, even when the wiring density and the component mounting density of the thick film circuit board 12 are increased, the generated heat is preferably radiated from the heat sink 24. The temperature rise of 12 is suppressed. In other words, the via 14 filled with the through conductor 10 that is disposed immediately below the IC 20 functions as a thermal via that releases heat generated on the substrate surface 18 side to the back surface 22.

  On the other hand, the through conductor 10 provided at a position away from the IC 20 is provided to electrically connect the wiring 28 on the front surface 18 side and the wiring 32 on the back surface 22 side as described above. A part of the conductor wiring of the substrate 12 is formed. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the through conductor 10 made of the same material can be used as a thermal via or a conductor wiring, so the conductor material filled in the via 14 is not distinguished depending on the use of the via 14. The conductor can be formed at once. In addition, the through conductor 10 has a significantly larger cross-sectional area than a through hole conventionally used for wiring connection, that is, a conductor provided only on the inner wall surface of the through hole. There is an advantage that it can be suitably used for applications in which a large current of about ˜60 (A) is desired to flow.

FIG. 3 is a process flowchart for explaining the main part of the manufacturing process of the thick film circuit board 12 described above. In the via filling printing step S1, the via 14 of the substrate 16 manufactured separately is filled with a via conductor paste prepared separately. The filling of the conductor paste is performed, for example, by applying the conductor paste to the via 14 from the front surface 18 side while sucking from the back surface 22 side. The via conductor paste is, for example, silver powder, silicon nitride powder, and an inorganic binder dispersed in a vehicle. In this embodiment, the via conductor paste is the conductor paste as claimed in the claims. It corresponds to. The silver powder is produced by, for example, the atomizing method, and is composed of spherical particles having an average particle diameter of about 2.5 (μm), and has a firing shrinkage of about 35 (%). The silicon nitride powder is synthesized, for example, by an imide decomposition method, and has a specific surface area of about 7 (m ² / g) as measured by the BET method. The vehicle is composed of an appropriate resin binder, a solvent, and the like, and the inorganic binder is composed of various metal oxides. However, these details are omitted because they are not necessary for understanding the present embodiment. To do.

  Next, in the firing step S2, the via conductor paste filled in the via 14 is fired. This firing process is performed at a firing temperature of about 850 (° C.) in an oxidizing atmosphere, for example. Thereby, the through conductor 10 is generated from the via conductor paste. At this time, the via conductor paste is a spherical powder with low sinterability produced by the atomization method of silver powder, and, as described above, the firing shrinkage is as low as about 35 (%), in addition to silicon nitride Since the powder is contained, the firing shrinkage rate of the paste is kept at about 6 (%). Therefore, the generated through conductor 10 is in close contact with the inner wall surface of the via 14 as described above, and has a very small amount of dent or protrusion from the front surface 18 and the back surface 22 of the upper and lower end surfaces thereof.

Next, in the resistance printing step S3, a separately prepared thick film resistor paste is applied to predetermined locations on the front surface 18 and the back surface 22 of the substrate 16, for example, in a rectangular pattern. In the resistance firing step S4, the resistor paste is applied. The baking treatment is performed at a predetermined temperature according to the composition. Thereby, the thick film resistor 34 is formed. The thick film resistor paste is prepared by dispersing a resistor material such as RuO ₂ and an inorganic binder in a vehicle.

  Next, in the conductor printing step S5, a separately prepared thick film conductor paste is applied to the front surface 18 and the back surface 22 of the substrate 16 in a predetermined planar shape, and in the conductor firing step S6, depending on the composition of the thick film conductor paste. The conductor wirings 28 and 32 are formed by performing a baking process at a predetermined temperature. The thick film conductor paste is prepared by dispersing a conductor material such as Ag, Ag / Pd, an inorganic binder, and the like in a vehicle.

  Next, in the protective glass printing step S7, separately prepared glass paste is applied to the back surface 22 of the substrate 16 so as to cover the conductor wiring 32 and the thick film resistor 34, and in the protective glass baking step S8, depending on the type of the glass. The protective layer 36 is formed by performing a baking process at a high temperature. As described above, the protective layer 36 may be made of a synthetic resin. In that case, the resin paste may be used instead of the glass paste, and the firing temperature may be changed according to the material.

  Next, in the resistance value adjustment step S9, all the resistance values of the thick film resistors 34 formed on the thick film circuit board 12 are individually measured, and the measured values deviate from the set values beyond the allowable values. The resistance value is adjusted using an appropriate method such as well-known laser trimming.

  Next, in the resin printing step S10, a separately prepared resin paste is printed, and in the resin curing step S11, a UV curing process is performed at an illuminance predetermined according to the type. Thereby, the applied resin paste is cured, a resin protective layer is generated, and a thick film circuit substrate used for manufacturing the thick film circuit substrate 12 described above is obtained. In FIG. 1, the resin protective layer is omitted.

  Next, in the inspection step S12, an inspection is performed before sending to the next step whether or not the formation state, dimensions, characteristic values, etc. of the respective constituent parts satisfy the standard, and the inspection has passed in the component assembling step S13. Then, the IC 20 is soldered and the heat sink 24 is fixed, whereby the thick film circuit board 12 is obtained.

  Next, a description will be given of the results of experiments performed by variously changing the composition of the via conductor paste used in the via filling printing step S1. Table 1 below summarizes the paste formulation specifications when evaluated. In Table 1, Formulation A is a composition that does not contain silicon nitride, that is, a paste in the case of a paste composed of silver powder, an inorganic binder, and a vehicle, similar to those generally used conventionally. Formulation B is a composition in which silicon nitride is added to Formulation A at a weight percentage of 2.50 (%), and the total amount is adjusted by reducing the proportion of silver powder by 2.50 (%), and an inorganic binder and The amount of vehicle was the same as Formulation A with no silicon nitride added. Formulations C to E are the same as Formulation B except that the amount of silicon nitride added is different in the range of 5.00 (%) to 10.00 (%).

Further, as the silver powder, for example, atomized silver powder manufactured by Nippon Atomizing Co., Ltd. was used. In addition, SN-ESP manufactured by Ube Industries, Ltd. was used as silicon nitride. This silicon nitride is synthesized by an imide decomposition method and has a specific surface area of 6 to 8 (m ² / g).

  Table 2 below summarizes the test results when using silver powder having an average particle diameter in the range of 1.5 (μm) to 10 (μm) with the formulation specifications shown in Table 1 above. The silver powder used is a spherical powder manufactured by Nippon Atomizing Co., Ltd., all manufactured by the atomizing method, and only the average particle diameter is different from each other. The No. 13 conventional product is an Ag / Pd paste that is commercially available for thermal vias, and is TR-6906 manufactured by Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo Co., Ltd. In Table 2, the conductor resistance value is a sheet resistance value obtained by measuring the resistance value after firing by a four-terminal method. The firing shrinkage was obtained by printing with a 2 mm square pad pattern, measuring the film thickness before and after firing, and determining the change rate of the film thickness.

  In Table 2 above, the conventional product has the characteristic that the firing shrinkage is about -2 (%), that is, slightly expands, and is excellent for thermal via applications, but the conductor resistance value is 13.4 (mΩ / □), which is not suitable for wiring applications.

  Nos. 1 to 4 use silver powder having an average particle size of 10 (μm), and the amount of silicon nitride added is in the range of 1.0 to 5.0 (%). As shown in the above results, the resistance value increases and the shrinkage rate tends to decrease as the amount of silicon nitride added increases. If the shrinkage rate is approximately 10 (%) or less, peeling of the through conductor 10 from the via 14 is not recognized, and the dent from the surface 18 is not particularly problematic. That is, when the amount of silicon nitride added is 4 (%) or more as in Nos. 3 and 4, it has sufficient characteristics in terms of shrinkage rate. On the other hand, if the resistance value is approximately 10 (mΩ / □) or less, it has higher conductivity than the conventional product, so each of No. 1 to 4 is sufficiently more conductive than the conventional product. Are better. However, in wiring applications, the higher the conductivity, the better, and considering that the conductivity of the conventional through-hole conductor is 2 to 3 (mΩ / □), it is preferably about 6 (mΩ / □) or less. . That is, in terms of conductivity, Nos. 1 to 3 are preferable. From the above, in the case of silver powder having an average particle diameter of 10 (μm), the amount of silicon nitride added is preferably about 4 to 5 (%), and most preferably about 4 (%).

  No. 5 uses silver powder having an average particle diameter of 5 (μm), and the addition amount of silicon nitride is 5.0 (%). The average particle size is not evaluated with other addition amounts, but the shrinkage rate is 6.5 (%) and the resistance value is 6.2 (mΩ / □), both of which are satisfactory values. The variation in resistance value was about 6.1 to 6.4 (mΩ / □), and sufficient conductivity could be obtained stably.

  Nos. 6 to 10 were evaluated by using silver powder having an average particle diameter of 2.5 (μm) and variously changing the addition amount of silicon nitride within a range of 0 to 10 (%). As shown in Table 2, No. 6 to which no silicon nitride is added has an extremely large shrinkage rate of 30 (%), and is not suitable as a conductor paste for vias. In other samples in which the amount of silicon nitride added is 2.5 (%) or more, the shrinkage rate is 6.7 (%) or less and the resistance value is 7.1 (mΩ / □) or less. However, when the addition amount is 10 (%) as in No. 10, the resistance value is a little as 7.1 (mΩ / □), so in order to obtain the highest possible conductivity, No. 9 Thus, it is preferable to keep the addition amount to 7.5 (%) or less.

  Nos. 11 and 12 are silver powder having an average particle diameter of 1.5 (μm) and the addition amount of silicon nitride is 0 or 5 (%). Even in the case of this average particle size, No. 11 to which no silicon nitride is added has a large shrinkage rate of 32.9 (%) and cannot be used as a via conductor paste. However, with No. 12 with 5% added, the shrinkage rate can be reduced to 10.7%, and the resistance value is only about 7.3 (mΩ / □) (variation is about 6.9 to 7.8). Even in combination, high conductivity can be obtained while suppressing shrinkage.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the conductive paste for forming the through conductor 10 uses a silver powder having a firing shrinkage of 35% or less and a silicon nitride powder. Since it is added, firing shrinkage is suppressed while ensuring high conductivity. Therefore, the through conductor 10 that can be used as a thermal via or for wiring connection is obtained by performing a baking process in an oxidizing atmosphere.

  Table 3 below summarizes the test results when aluminum powder is added instead of silicon nitride. Other conditions were the same as those shown in Table 2. As is apparent from the evaluation results in Table 3, the addition of aluminum powder can reduce the shrinkage rate of the conductor paste, which is effective in terms of suppressing shrinkage. However, when aluminum powder is added, even if 1 (%) is added, the resistance value increases to 13.4 (mΩ / □), and the conductivity becomes insufficient. As shown in Table 3, each silver powder having an average particle size of 2.5 (μm), 5.0 (μm), and 10 (μm) was confirmed.

  Therefore, if the test results shown in Table 3 are compared with the test results shown in Table 2, it is necessary to use silicon nitride powder as an additive in order to ensure conductivity while suppressing shrinkage. It turns out that other powders such as aluminum powder are unsuitable.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated in detail with reference to drawings, this invention can be implemented also in another aspect, A various change can be added in the range which does not deviate from the main point.

It is a figure which shows typically the cross-sectional structure of the thick film circuit board in which the board | substrate for thick film circuits of one Example of this invention was used. It is a top view for demonstrating the positional relationship of IC and via | veer mounted on the thick film circuit board of FIG. It is process drawing for demonstrating the principal part of the manufacturing process of the thick film circuit board of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

10: Through conductor, 12: Thick film circuit board, 14: Via, 16: Board, 18: Front surface, 20: IC, 22: Back surface, 24: Heat sink, 26: Solder, 28: Conductor wiring, 30: Wire, 32 : Conductor wiring, 34: Thick film resistor, 36: Protective layer, 38: Adhesive layer

Claims (5)

A conductive paste for filling and firing through holes provided in a ceramic substrate,
Silver powder produced by the atomizing method ,
A conductor paste comprising silicon nitride powder. The conductor paste according to claim 1, wherein the silver powder and the silicon nitride powder are dispersed in a vehicle together with an inorganic binder .   3. The conductive paste according to claim 1, wherein the silver powder has an average particle diameter of 1 to 5 (μm).   The conductor paste according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the silicon nitride powder is contained in a range of 2.5 to 10 (%) by mass ratio with respect to the entire paste. A ceramic substrate having a through hole;
The through-hole produced | generated by baking by the oxidizing atmosphere from the conductor paste of any one of the said Claim 1 thru | or 4 with which it filled in the said through-hole was characterized by the above-mentioned. Membrane circuit board.

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