NanoBond® Assembly – A Rapid, Room Temperature Soldering Process

Indium Corporation of America has commercialized a new technology that will revolutionize how manufacturers join components using solder materials. (See Figure 1) The joining process is based on the use of reactive multilayer foils as local heat sources. The foils are a new class of nano-engineered materials, in which self-propagating exothermic reactions can be ignited at room temperature through an ignition process. By inserting a multilayer foil between two solder layers and two components, heat generated by the reaction in the foil melts the solder and consequently bonds are completed at room temperature in air, argon or vacuum in approximately one second. The resulting metallic joints exhibit thermal conductivities two orders of magnitude higher, and thermal resistivity’s an order of magnitude lower, than current commercial TIMs. The use of reactive foils as a local heat source eliminates the need for torches, furnaces, or lasers, speeds the soldering processes, and dramatically reduces the total heat that is needed. Thus, temperature-sensitive or small components can be joined without thermal damage or excessive heating. In addition, mismatches in thermal contraction on cooling can be avoided because components see very small increases in temperature. This is particularly beneficial for joining metals to ceramics. The fabrication and characterization of the reactive foils is described, and the value proposition for NanoBonding is presented. This presentation also shows the applicability of this platform technology to many areas of packaging including Thermal Interface Materials, microelectronics, optoelectronics, and Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)

Soldering and Brazing Metals to Ceramics at Room Temperature Using a Novel Nanotechnology

This paper reviews a new, low-temperature process for soldering and brazing ceramics to metals that is based on the use of reactive multilayer foils as a local heat source. The reactive foils range in thickness from 40μm to 100μm and contain many nanoscale layers that alternate between materials with large heats of mixing, such as Al and Ni. By inserting a free-standing foil between two solder (or braze) layers and two components, heat generated by the reaction of the foil melts the solder (or braze) and consequently bonds the components. The use of reactive foils eliminates the need for a furnace, and dramatically reduces the heating of the components being bonded. Thus ceramics and metals can be joined over large areas without the damaging thermal stresses that are typically encountered when cooling in furnace soldering or brazing operations. This paper draws on earlier work to review the bonding process and its application to a variety of ceramic-metal systems. Predictions of thermal profiles during bonding and the resulting residual stresses are described and compared with results for conventional soldering or brazing processes. The microstructure, uniformity, and physical properties of the reactive foil bonds are reviewed as well, using several different ceramic-metal systems as examples.

Cutting Reactive Foils Without Igniting Them (A Femtosecond Laser Machining Approach)

ABSTRACTNi/Al nanostructured multilayer foils were machined with femtosecond pulse-length laser irradiation at various fluences. Scanning electron microscopy, back-scattered electron detection, and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the resulting laser modified regions. We show that material removal at the micron scale is possible with no ignition of a self-propagation reaction emanating from the irradiated areas, a danger minimized by the fact that the extremely short time duration of the pulse produces negligible heat dissipation into the multilayer system. Nevertheless, initial AFM and BSE results give indication that multilayers may be intermixing and reacting locally in areas smaller than the laser beam diameter, though the exact ignition mechanism is still to be determined.

Modeling Self-Propagating Exothermic Reactions in Multilayer Systems

ABSTRACTSelf-propagating reactions in free-standing multilayer foils provide a unique opportunity to study very rapid, diffusion-based transformations in non-equilibrium material systems. To fully understand the coupling between mass and thermal diffusion controlling these reactions and to optimize the commercial use of reactive foils, we have undertaken analytical and numerical modeling. Our analytical model predicts an increase in the reaction velocities with decreasing bilayer thickness down to a critical bilayer thickness and a reversal in this trend below the critical thickness. Predicting reaction characteristics such as the flame thermal width, the reaction zone width and the effect of variations in material properties with temperature has proven analytically intractable. To overcome these limitations, we have also used numerical methods to determine the composition and temperature profiles ahead of the reaction front for different multilayer periods and premixing. The results are compared with experimental values where possible.