ABSTRACT
The effects of environmental conditions on the interfacial adhesion between screen-printed Ag film and polyimide substrate interface are quantitatively evaluated using the 90° peel test. The adhesion of printed patterns is varied by annealing time and atmosphere conditions. The peel strengths of air, high vacuum, and N2 atmosphere samples increase after post-annealing for 24 h, which are closely related to the curing effect of binder in Ag paste. The peel strengths of air, high vacuum, and N2 atmosphere samples decrease after post-annealing for 48 and 100 h. Peel strengths of samples after 48 h post-annealing in air are lower than in high vacuum and N2, indicating the effects of post-annealing atmospheric conditions on interfacial adhesion strength. The decreased adhesion strength during post-annealing seems to be closely related to Ag2O formation at screen-printed Ag/polyimide. Therefore, the optimum annealing conditions of Ag binder must be carefully applied to obtain maximum interfacial adhesion. Furthermore, it is important to control Ag2O formation during environmental reliability testing.
