TY - CONF A1 - Heuser, Lina A1 - Nofz, Marianne A1 - Müller, Ralf A1 - Deubener, J. T1 - Sintering of silver‑alkali zinc borate glass‑composites N2 - Since decades electric contacts based on silver metallization pastes are key components of photovoltaics and advanced microelectronics. For the metallization of commercial Si solar cells, high conductive silver glass pastes are cost effectively applicated by screen printing. Nevertheless, silver pastes are still one of the most crucial and expensive none Si materials in solar cells. Ever shorter time to market as well as increasing demands on reduced Ag consumption and line width require the targeted development of silver-glass-pastes with increased sinter ability and electrical conductivity. As a main difficulty, however, the liquid phase sintering of silver glass pastes is poorly understood so far. In the present study, the influence of different network modifier in alkali-zinc-borate paste glasses on liquid phase sintering of silver-glass-pastes was investigated. Low melting X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Na, Li and Rb (abbr. LZB, NZB, and RZB) were utilized to prepare silver-glass-composites containing 30 %Vol glass. Shrinkage behavior of the silver-glass-composites compared with that of pure silver and pure glass powder compacts was studied with heating microscopy. The powder compacts were uniaxially pressed and heated at 5 K/min to the glass softening temperature. Glass transformation temperature and viscosity of the glasses were respectively measured with dilatometry and rotational viscometry. The thermal behavior of the pure glasses was analyzed with thermal analysis. Additionally, the contact angle of glass on pure silver foil was determined by means of heating microscopy between room temperature and 830 °C. Thermal analysis of the alkali-zinc-borate-glasses under study has shown transformation temperatures between 450 °C (RZB), 460 °C (LZB) and 465 °C (NZB). For all glasses crystallization was found to start approximately at about 550 °C. However, different peak areas hint on a different degree of crystallization. Conformingly, the sintering behavior, measured in terms of area shrinkage, significantly differed for the silver-pastes under study. For silver-pastes with NZB or LZB-glass, sintering starts at 464 °C for NZB Ag pastes and at 451 °C for LZB Ag pastes and ends at 597 °C for NZB Ag paste and at 594 °C for LZB Ag paste. The sintering of the RZB Ag paste proceeds between 426 °C and 703 °C. The final densification was retarded possibly due to crystallization or swelling. The low sinter onset at 426 °C seems to correlate with the good wetting behavior of the RZB glass. Thus, the lowest apparent contact angle between the just densified powder compact sintered at a silver substrate was found for this glass. Moreover, microstructure analyses of the various composites indicate differences in silver dissolution and reprecipitation. T2 - Technology Crossover Extravaganza, HiTEC/CICMT/APEPS CY - Online meeting DA - 26.04.2021 KW - Silver-glass-metallization-paste KW - Sintering KW - Crystallization KW - Alkali ions KW - Sintering atmosphere PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52872 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Heuser, Lina A1 - Sobek, P. A1 - Körner, S. A1 - Müller, Ralf T1 - Sintering of silver-alkali zinc borate glass composites N2 - High conductive silver-glass-metallization-pastes are key components in photovoltaics and advanced microelectronics. However, the underlying mechanisms of liquid phase sintering as silver dissolution, diffusion and reprecipitation are poorly understood so far. In the current work, the influence of different network modifier in alkali-zinc-borate paste-glasses on liquid phase sintering of silver-glass-composites was studied. Therefore, silver-glass-composites containing 30 vol% glass were prepared, using low melting X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Na, Li, and Rb (NZB, LZB, and RZB). Glass transition temperature, viscosity, glass-silver wetting, crystallization and sintering behavior was studied by means of thermal analysis, dilatometry, heating microscopy and microscopy. Similar glass transition temperatures of 450 °C (RZB), 460 °C (LZB) and 465 °C (NZB) were found by means of thermal analysis for glasses under study. Also, all glasses have a similar crystallization onset at about 550 °C, even though exhibiting with a different degree of crystallization. Despite these similarities, however, the sintering behavior, measured in terms of area shrinkage, significantly differs for the composites. This finding indicates a different degree of silver dissolution. Assuming that dissolved silver reduces the viscosity, this effect could explain why glass crystallization starts at lower temperature in the composites. For example, the crystallization peak of LZB at 629 °C measured for pure glass powder compacts was decreased to 586 °C for the composite. Confirmatively, microstructure analyses indicate different degrees of silver dissolution, as e.g. revealed by different amount of silver precipitates within the residual glass phase, and reprecipitation. Best silver dissolution appeared for the RZB glass. Nevertheless, the final densification of RZB was retarded probably due to swelling and crystallization. T2 - XRM Workshop CY - Halle, Germany DA - 03.03.2020 KW - Silver-glass-metallization-paste KW - Sintering KW - Alkali ions PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-51243 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Mieller, Björn A1 - Bresch, Sophie A1 - Marucha, P. A1 - Moos, R. A1 - Rabe, Torsten T1 - Sintering and interconnecting thermoelectric oxides for energy applications N2 - Today, more than 12% of the primary energy is lost in the form of waste heat. Thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can convert waste heat directly into electrical power by utilizing the Seebeck effect. The performance of such a generator is defined by a dimensionless figure of merit ZT of the thermoelectric pairs and the resistance R of the metallic contacts between these pairs. The figure of merit of thermoelectric oxides is considerably smaller compared to semiconductors. Still, thermoelectric oxides like calcium cobaltite (Ca3Co4O9) are attractive for applications at elevated temperatures in air. In contrast to the established π-type architecture of common TEGs, tape casting and multilayer technology may be applied for cost-effective manufacturing of oxide TEGs. Promising demonstrations of multilayer TEGs have been published in the last years. Still, the development of reliable and scalable manufacturing processes and proper material combinations is necessary. The aim of our project is to evaluate the feasibility of low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) technology for a practical manufacturing of oxide multilayer TEGs of Ca3Co4O9 (p-type) and calcium manganate (CaMnO3, n-type). Ca3Co4O9 exhibits an undesired phase decomposition at 926 °C. Because of that, the application of sintering strategies and interconnect concepts well known from LTCC technology is a promising approach. We present results of pressure-assisted sintering of Ca3Co4O9 multilayer at 900 °C and axial pressures of up to 7.5 MPa. Ca3Co4O9 was produced by solid state reaction of CaCO3 and cobalt(II,III)oxide at 900 °C. Green tapes were prepared by a doctor-blade process, manually stacked and laminated by uniaxial thermocompression. Sintering was conducted in a LTCC sintering press between SiC setter plates. The thickness shrinkage was recorded by an in-situ technique. After sintering under 7.5 MPa, the microstructure of the single phase material shows a high density of 95 % and an advantageous alignment of the platelet grains. This results in good electrical conductivity and a comparatively high ZT of 0.018 at room temperature. However, the lowering of CaMnO3 sintering temperature from above 1200 °C to below 920 °C remains a challenge. To select a proper metal paste for interconnections of an oxide TEG, several pastes have been investigated regarding contact resistance of internal and external (soldered) connections in a preliminary study. Commercial pastes containing Ag, Au, Au/Pt, Ag/Pd, and Ag/Pd/Bi were manually applied and post-fired on sintered test bars of Ca3Co4O9 and CaMnO3 at 900 °C for 2 h. All tested pastes formed mechanically stable metallization after firing. For resistance measurement, 4-wire method and a custom-made probe head were used. The contacts on Ca3Co4O9 exhibit significantly (2-sample t-test, α = 5%) higher resistance compared to contacts on CaMnO3. Pure silver paste exhibits the lowest resistance for internal contacts on both materials, lower than 5 mΩ on CaMnO3. Ag/Pd/Bi paste resulted in conspicuously high variance of resistance. EDX analyses clarified an enrichment of Bi in the thermoelectric material near the interface and thereby the formation of an oxide layer with probably high electrical resistance. The thickness of that layer varies with the thickness of metallization. In conclusion, the use of Bi containing pastes is not advisable. Pure Ag paste shows the best results regarding resistance and solderability. T2 - CICMT 2018 CY - Aveiro, Portugal DA - 18.04.2018 KW - Thermoelectric oxide KW - Thermoelectric generator KW - Multilayer technology KW - Pressure-assisted sintering PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-44740 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Müller, Ralf A1 - Agea-Blanco, Boris A1 - Blaeß, Carsten A1 - Waurischk, Tina T1 - Sintering and foaming of silicate glass powders N2 - Glass powders are promising candidates for manufacturing a broad diversity of sintered materials like sintered glass-ceramics, glass matrix composites, glass bonded ceramics or pastes. Powder processing, however, can substantially affect sinterability, e.g. by promoting surface crystallization. On the other hand, densification can be hindered by gas bubble formation for slow crystallizing glass powders. Against this background, we studied sintering and foaming of silicate glass powders with different crystallization tendency for wet milling and dry milling in air, Ar, N2, and CO2 by means of heating microscopy, DTA, Vacuum Hot Extraction (VHE), SEM, IR spectroscopy, XPS, and ToF-SIMS. In any case, foaming activity increased significantly with progressive milling. For moderately milled glass powders, subsequent storage in air could also promote foaming. Contrarily, foaming could be substantially reduced by milling in water and 10 wt% HCl. Although all powder compacts were uniaxially pressed and sintered in air, foaming was significantly affected by different milling atmosphere and was found most pronounced for milling in CO2 atmosphere. Conformingly, VHE studies revealed that foaming is mainly driven by carbonaceous species, even for powders milled in other gases. Current results of this study thus indicate that foaming is caused by carbonaceous species trapped on the glass powder surface. T2 - IMAPS/ACerS 15th International Conference and Exhibition on Ceramic Interconnect and Ceramic Microsystems Technologies (CICMT 2019) CY - Shanghai, China DA - 16.04.2019 KW - Glass powder KW - Sintering KW - Foaming PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48196 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Müller, Ralf A1 - Agea Blanco, Boris A1 - Blaeß, Carsten A1 - Waurischk, Tina A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Behrens, H. T1 - Sintering and foaming of silicate N2 - Glass powders are promising candidates for manufacturing a broad diversity of sintered materials like sintered glass-ceramics, glass matrix composites or glass bonded ceramics with properties and complex shape. Powder processing, however, can substantially affect sinterability, e.g. by promoting surface crystallization. On the other hand, densification can be hindered by gas bubble formation for slow crystallizing glass powders. Against this background, we studied sintering and foaming of silicate glass powders with different crystallization tendency for wet milling and dry milling in air, Ar, N2, and CO2 by means of heating microscopy, DTA, Vacuum Hot Extraction (VHE), SEM, IR spectroscopy, XPS, and ToF-SIMS. In any case, foaming activity increased significantly with progressive milling. For moderately milled glass powders, subsequent storage in air could also promote foaming. Contrarily, foaming could be substantially reduced by milling in water and 10 wt% HCl. Although all powder compacts were uniaxially pressed and sintered in air, foaming was significantly affected by different milling atmosphere and was found most pronounced for milling in CO2 atmosphere. Conformingly, VHE studies revealed that foaming is mainly driven by carbonaceous species, even for powders milled in other gases. Current results of this study thus indicate that foaming is caused by carbonaceous species trapped on the glass powder surface. T2 - ICG Annual Meeting 2018 CY - Yokohama, Japan DA - 23.09.2018 KW - Foaming KW - Glass KW - Powder KW - Sintering PY - 2018 AN - OPUS4-46474 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Müller, Ralf A1 - Agea-Blanco, Boris A1 - Blaeß, Carsten A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Behrens, H T1 - Sintering and Foaming of Silicate Glass Powders N2 - The lecture focuses on the mechanisms of non-desired gas bubble formation and foaming during the sintering of glass powder compacts. It is shown that foaming is driven by carbon gases and that carbonates, encapsulated in micropores or mechaniacally dissolved beneath the glass surface, provide the major foaming source. T2 - Sandanski Workshop Sinter crystallization 27th-29th September 2021 PROJECT “THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF SINTER-CYSTALLIZATION” DN 19/7 CY - Online meeting DA - 27.10. 2021 KW - Sintering KW - Non-desired foaming PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-53772 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Fedelich, Bernard A1 - Feldmann, Titus A1 - Charmi, Amir A1 - Epishin, A. T1 - Simulation of pore shrinkage with crystal plasticity and dislocation transport N2 - Single crystal superalloys usually contain pores of sizes 5-10 micro-m after casting and heat treatment. These pores can be reduced under compression by combined creep and diffusion in a subsequent treatment called Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP). The paper presents a methodology to simulate pore shrinkage under HIP conditions in two dimensions (2D). At the scale of the pores, which is also the scale of the sub-grains (<50 micro-m) the dislocation sources cannot be assumed to be homogeneously distributed. Thus, the applicability of classical crystal plasticity is questionable. In this case, the transport of dislocations under an applied stress from the location where they are nucleated must be explicitly modelled. This is done by solving the transport equations for the dislocation densities and the elasticity equations in 2D. The dislocations are assumed to be nucleated at Low Angle Boundaries. They glide or climb through the sub-grains with a stress dependent velocity. The transport equations are solved by the Flux-Corrected Transport method, which belongs to the predictor-corrector class of algorithms. In the first step, an artificial diffusion is introduced, which suppresses spurious oscillations of the solution. In a second step, the solution is corrected in such a way that no additional extremes appear and that the extremes do not grow. The algorithm is validated by simulating the transport of simple distributions with a constant velocity field. With the dislocation velocities and the computed dislocation densities, the inelastic shear rate at the slip system level is computed by integrating the Orowan equation. In the 2D-setting, three slip systems are considered. The contributions of these slip systems are summed up to obtain the total inelastic strain rate. Dislocation glide and climb and the coupling of climb with vacancies diffusion are considered. The resolution of the equilibrium equations from the inelastic strains turned out to be prone to numerical instabilities. As an alternative, the stresses are directly computed from the distribution of geometrically necessary dislocations following the method presented in. The resulting boundary value problem is solved by the Least-Square Finite Element method. Examples of simulations are presented for a representative region under creep tension and for a pore shrinking under external pressure. T2 - International Conference on Material Modelling, ICMM 6 CY - Lund, Sweden DA - 26.06.2019 KW - Superalloy KW - Pores KW - Creep KW - Dislocations PY - 2019 AN - OPUS4-48488 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Heuser, Lina A1 - Agudo Jácome, Leonardo A1 - Pauli, Jutta A1 - Nofz, Marianne A1 - Müller, Ralf T1 - Silver in low-melting alkali zinc borate glasses N2 - Ein aktuelles Forschungsziel ist die Substitution von Bleioxid in niedrig schmelzenden Gläsern z.B. zur Anwendung in Silber-Metallisationspasten. Im Fokus steht hier die Untersuchung der Silberdiffusion in Alkali-Zink-Boratgläsern (X2O-ZnO-B2O3, X = Li, Na, K, Rb). Zudem wird der Redoxzustand des Silbers (Ag) und somit die Art der diffundierenden Silberspezies bestimmt. Hierzu wurde eine metallische Silberschicht mittels Sputterns auf Glaswürfel aufgebracht. Die Wärmebehandlung erfolgte nahe der Glasübergangstemperatur bei 470 °C über 2 h unter Luft und Stickstoffatmosphäre. Die Schichtdicke der Silberbeschichtung betrug 1.8 µm nach der Wärmebehandlung, gemessen mittels Weißlicht-Interferometer. Die Silberdiffusionsprofile wurden mittels Sekundär-Neutral-Teilchen-Massenspektrometrie gemessen. Die Diffusionskoeffizienten des Silbers liegen in der Größenordnung von ~10-14 cm2/s und unterscheiden sich nur gering in Abhängigkeit des Alkali-Ions im Glas. Mittels Fluoreszenz-Spektroskopie ließen sich gelöste Ag+-Ionen und [Agm]n+-Cluster nach der Wärmebehandlung unterscheiden. Zusätzlich konnten ausgeschiedene metallische Silber-Partikel im Natrium-enthaltenden Glas mittels Transmissionselektronenmikroskopie beobachtet werden. Diese haben einen mittleren Durchmesser von ~6 nm. N2 - Substitution of lead oxide in low-melting glasses, e.g., for application in silver metallization pastes, is a current research goal. This work is focused on the investigation of silver diffusion in alkali zinc borate glasses (X2O-ZnO-B2O3, X = Li, Na, K, Rb). In addition, the redox state of silver (Ag) and thus the type of diffusing silver species were studied. For this purpose, a metallic silver coating was applied on glass cubes by means of sputtering. Heat treatment of the samples was performed close to the glass transition temperatures at 470 °C for 2 h under air and nitrogen atmosphere. Coating thickness was 1.8 µm after heat treatment, measured by a white light interferometer. Silver diffusion profiles were measured by means of secondary neutral mass spectrometry. The silver diffusion coefficients are in the range of ~10-14 cm2/s and indicate no significant differences depending on the type of alkali ions in the glass. Dissolved Ag+-ions and [Agm]n+-clusters in the glasses were differentiated using fluorescence spectroscopy. Precipitated metallic silver particles in the sodium containing glass were observed by means of transmission electron microcopy. Their mean particle diameter was ~6 nm. T2 - Living Glass Surfaces XI - Year of Glass CY - Ilmenau, Germany DA - 14.09.2022 KW - Alkali zinc borate glasses KW - Silver diffusion KW - Transmission electron microscopy KW - Fluorescence spectroscopy KW - Silver cluster PY - 2022 AN - OPUS4-55736 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Heuser, Lina A1 - de Oliveira Guilherme Buzanich, Ana A1 - Radtke, Martin A1 - Agudo Jácome, Leonardo A1 - Feldmann, Ines A1 - Deubener, J. T1 - Silver diffusion in low-melting alkali zinc borate model glasses studied by means of SNMS, TEM and XAS N2 - In many late-breaking research fields as in photovoltaics, microelectronics, nuclear waste glasses or at least mirror glasses silver diffusion in glasses is relevant to the issues of high-level functionality and recycling. The present study is focused on silver diffusion in innovative, low-melting alkali zinc borate glasses (X2O-ZnO-B2O3, X = Li, Na, K, Rb) potentially usable for silver metallization-pastes in solar cells. The glasses were coated with a thin metallic silver layer and heat treatments in air and nitrogen close to Tg at 470 °C for 2 h were performed. After heat treatment under air and nitrogen atmospheres the coating thickness, measured by a white light interferometer, was about 1.8 µm thick. Silver depth profiles determined by means of secondary neutral mass spectrometry (SNMS) indicate the fastest silver diffusion to a depth of 3.5 µm for Li2O-ZnO-B2O3 (LZB) glass. Nevertheless, the influence of the different alkali ions on the silver diffusion is small. The oxygen availability determines the silver diffusion into the glasses. The oxygen promotes the oxidation of the silver layer enabling Ag+ to diffuse into the glass and to precipitate as Ag0. Both species were detected by x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The precipitated metallic silver particles in Na2O-ZnO-B2O3 (NZB) glass have a mean size of 5.9 nm ± 1.2 nm diameter, which was determined using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Phase separation in zinc-rich and zinc-poor phases with a mean diameter of 75 nm ± 20 nm occurred in NZB glass after heat treatment. Ion diffusion of the glasses into the silver layer was suggested by EDX-line scans. T2 - 94. Glastechnische Tagung CY - Online meeting DA - 10.05.2021 KW - Silver diffusion KW - Alkali zinc borate glass KW - Metallic silver precipitates KW - Phase separation PY - 2021 AN - OPUS4-52861 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Heuser, Lina A1 - Sobek, P. A1 - Körner, S. A1 - Müller, Ralf T1 - Silver - alkali borate glass pastes N2 - Network modifier ions can decisively influence properties and structure of low melting alkali-zinc-borate glasses and thus cause complex effects on the liquid phase sintering of silver-glass metallization pastes. This effect was studied for X2O-ZnO-B2O3 (X = Li, Na, Rb) glasses for silver-glass metallization pastes. Viscosity and the glass transition temperature, Tg, were measured with rotational viscometry and dilatometry. Dried model pastes with 30 vol% LZB, NZB or RZB glass were prepared for sintering studies by means of heating microscopy measuring the silhouette area shrinkage of uniaxially pressed powder compacts during heating at 5 K/min. For comparison, the silhouette area shrinkage of pure glass and silver powder compacts were determined. Glass-silver wetting was investigated during heating of bulk glass cylinders placed on silver substrates. Glass RZB turned out to have the lowest viscosity among the glasses under study. Its glass transformation temperature, Tg, was found at 444 °C and it caused the lowest sintering onset for its glass and paste powder compacts. Slightly increased values of Tg were found for NZB and LZB (468 °C and 466 °C, respectively) and a slightly retarded sintering was found for both paste powder compacts. These results indicate that liquid phase sintering of silver-glass pastes under air atmosphere is mainly influenced by glass viscosity. T2 - GLASS MEETING 2020 CY - Online meeting DA - 07.12.2020 KW - Silver-glass metallization paste KW - Sintering KW - Alkali ions KW - Viscosity KW - Silver precipitates PY - 2020 AN - OPUS4-52871 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -