Simulation and Experimental Validation of Microstructure Evolution of Sintered Ag Layer During Thermal Aging Using a Hybrid Potts-Phase Field Model
Xiao Hu (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Chao Gu (Fudan University)
Qiling Xing (External organisation)
Rene Poelma (Nexperia)
Jianlin Huang (Ampleon)
Hans Van Rijckevorsel (Ampleon)
Huib Scholten (Ampleon)
Jiajie Fan (Fudan University)
Marcel H. Hermans (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Willem D.Van Driel (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
Guoqi Zhang (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science)
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Abstract
The long-term reliability of sintered silver (Ag) layers in high-power electronics is strongly influenced by microstructural evolution during thermal aging. In this study, we present a hybrid Potts-Phase Field model that integrates discrete grain growth dynamics based on the Kinetic Mento Carlo method with continuous pore migration based on the Phase Field method to simulate the microstructure evolution of sintered Ag under high-temperature storage experiment. The model is written in Taichi Lang, a parallel language embedded in Python, to improve the efficiency and speed of large-scale microstructure simulation. The microstructural characterization results show that the sintered silver layer conforms to the normal grain growth characteristics and pore migration with increased aging time under air ambient at 200 °C. The average grain size was fitted based on the grain growth kinetics model. The initial grain size of the experimental group was 0.31 μm, the grain growth index n was 2.04, and the grain growth rate K was 4.31×10-3. The initial grain size of the simulation group was 0.29 μm, the grain growth index n was 2.71, and the grain growth rate K was 1.28×10-4. The experimental and simulation results showed good consistency in the initial grain size and evolution trend, but there were certain deviations in the grain boundary migration rate and time scale mapping. This work provides a new tool for simulating richer coupling phenomena in the microstructure during the aging process of Ag sintering materials and points out the direction for subsequent model optimization and parameter calibration.