Crack-Free Ni-P Film for Power Devices

Thursday, 13 October 2022: 17:00
Room 301 (The Hilton Atlanta)
Y. Fujimori (Yamato Denki Industrial Co., Ltd.), M. Shimizu (Shinshu University), T. Kurashina (Yamato Denki Industrial Co., Ltd.), and S. Arai (Shinshu University)
Demands for power devices are expanding with the electrification of automobiles. Power devices are soldered using Ni-P films prepared by an electrochemical method to withstand required high currents. However, cracks are inevitably induced in Ni-P films during high mounting temperatures. Ni-P films play an important role as a solder joint material and the P concentration is a critical factor that affects the mechanical properties of Ni-P films. Therefore, in this work, we focused on the P concentration and tried to prepare Ni-P films without cracks induced by high heat treatments. Ni-P films with different P concentration were formed on an Al substrate by an electroplating using a Watt bath and then investigated the relationship between the P concentration and the generation of cracks by X-ray diffraction and thermal expansion analyses. By the heat treatment at 300 °C or higher, Ni-P compounds mainly composed of Ni3P was formed in the Ni-P film with P concentration of 8 wt.% or more and the film shrank by 0.11%. In contrast, the 2 wt.% or less P- Ni film did not cause the formation of Ni3P and little shrinkage was observed even after the high treatment at 400 °C. The obtained results indicate that the phase transition to Ni-P compounds by the heat treatment is responsible for the mechanical disintegration, that is, the P concentration in the film is closely related to the generation of cracks. We propose the method for suppressing cracks by controlling the P concentration in the Ni film.