Nano-conductive Adhesives for Nano-electronics Interconnection

With the phasing out of lead-bearing solders, electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) have been identified as one of the environmentally friendly alternatives to tin/lead (Sn/Pb) solders in electronics packaging applications. In particular, with the requirements for fine-pitch and high-performance interconnects in advanced packaging, nanoconductive adhesives are becoming more and more important due to the special electrical, mechanical, optical, magnetic, and chemical properties that nano-sized materials can possess. There has been extensive research for the last few years on materials and process improvement of ECAs, as well as the advances of nanoconductive adhesives that contain nano-filler such as nanoparticles, nanowires, or carbon nanotubes and nanomonolayer graphenes. In this chapter, recent research trends on electrically conductive adhesives (ECAs) and their related nanotechnologies are discussed, with the particular emphasis on the emerging nanotechnology, including materials development and characterizations, processing optimization, reliability improvement, and future challenges/opportunities identification. The state of the art on nanoisotropic/anisotropic conductive adhesives incorporated with nanosilver, carbon nanotubes, and nanonickel, and their recent studies on those for flexible nano/bioelectronics, transparent electrodes, and jettable processes are addressed in this chapter. Future studies on nanointerconnect materials are discussed as well.