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High conductive silver metallization pastes are key components in advanced electronics and photovoltaics. Increasing demands on efficiency, miniaturization and ever shorter time-to-market require tailored glass-silver-pastes. In these pastes, low-melting glasses act as a sintering aid achieving better sintering, adhesion and contact formation for solar cells. Yet, the related liquid phase sintering of silver-glass-composites and the underlying mechanism of silver dissolution, transport and reprecipitation are rarely investigated. In this study, systematically varied low melting alkaline zinc borate, alkaline earth borate, and Pb- and Bi-glasses are investigated. Glass transition and crystallization are studied with dilatometry, DTA and XRD. Sintering of the pure glasses, pure silver and silver-glass-composites is analyzed with Hot Stage Microscopy, optical and electron microscopy. Since oxygen dissolved in silver powders can affect the silver dissolution as silver oxide in the matrix oxide glasses, the O2-content of silver powders is determined by Vacuum Hot Extraction. The glass transition temperature of the glasses under study varies between 370 °C and 590 °C whereas the sinter onset largely ranges between 400 °C and 600 °C. On the other hand, it scattered between 200 °C and 450 °C for selected commercial Ag-powders of different particle size and morphology.
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.
Low melting zinc borate glasses awake interest to replace lead borate glasses in the silver metallization pastes for solar cells or microelectronics. In the current study, characteristic properties of alkali zinc borate glasses (X2O-ZnO-B2O3, X = Li, Na, K, Rb) were compared to an earth alkali zinc borate glass (CaO-ZnO-B2O3). Additionally, zinc oxide is partially substituted by lead oxide or cooper oxide in the borate glasses (Li2O-PbO-B2O3, Na2O ZnO CuO-B2O3). The alkali zinc borate glasses indicate less differences in Raman spectra, and thus in structural properties, in comparison to the Ca and Pb ions influence. LPbB (Tg = 401 °C) has a lower viscosity than LZB (Tg = 468 °C) and CaZB has the highest glass transition temperature (Tg = 580 °C). The Angell plot for the alkali zinc borate glasses shows a high fragility m = 80. Besides Tg, the density measured by means of the Archimedean principle, molar volume, and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of the glasses were investigated. Trends could be found according to alkali ions or intermediate oxides. The density increases with decreasing alkali ion size from KZB (2.632 g/cm3) to LZB (2.829 g/cm3) and increases from LZB to LPbB (3.764 g/cm3). CTE ranges between 7.09 10-6 K-1 for CaZB and 11.5 10 6 K 1 for KZB and RZB. The differential thermal analysis (DTA) and X ray diffraction (XRD) indicate crystallization of various crystalline phases during heating with 5 K/min in most cases.
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.
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.
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.
Low melting Li2O-PbO-B2O3, Me2O-ZnO-B2O3, Me = Li, Na, K, Rb and CaO-ZnO-B2O3 glasses were studied with Raman and infrared spectroscopies to advance the structural understanding of zinc borate glasses as potential candidates for substitution of lead containing glasses. Although the effect of type of alkali ions on the number (N4) of fourfold coordinated boron (B4) in the glasses is small, the alkali ions direct the type of borate groups, i.e., pentaborate in lithium, sodium, and calcium zinc borate glasses, as well as diborate in potassium and rubidium containing ones. Both groups were simultaneously found in Li2O-PbO-B2O3. Alkali ions are mainly responsible for the formation of B4-units and metaborate. Zinc ions favorably compensate non-bridging oxygen and partially form ZnO4. With decreasing N4 and field strength of the alkali ions the atomic packing density, glass transition temper ature and Young’s Modulus also decrease. The coefficient of thermal expansion increases with decreasing N4.
Glasses in the systems Me2O-ZnO-B2O3 with Me = Li, Na, K, Rb (MeZB), Na2O-ZnO-CuO-B2O3 (NZCuB), CaO-ZnO-B2O3 (CaZB), and Li2O-PbO-B2O3 (LPbB) as a reference, were studied by differential thermal analysis, dilatometry, rotational viscometry, and heating microscopy. A decrease of viscosity and sintering range was found with decreasing number of fourfold coordinated boron. The viscosity of the alkali zinc borate glasses varies only slightly. LPbB and CaZB stand out by their reduced and increased viscosities, respectively. Sodium, potassium, and calcium zinc borate glasses possess a fragility above 76. All glasses were sintered to full density before crystallization. Mostly binary zinc borate phases govern crystallization. A ternary crystalline phase was detected only in the potassium containing sample. The Weinberg glass stability parameter ranges between 0.07 and 0.12. This is caused by the presence of several crystalline phases and varying melting points of even the same crystalline phase in different glass matrices.
Liquid phase sintering of glass bearing silver pastes used in photovoltaics and microelectronics is poorly understood. In particular, the role of different network modifiers acting in the glass component and the question of the most suitable atmospheric oxygen level during sintering are still under considerable debate. To tackle these issues, low-melting and lead-free X2O-ZnO-B2O3 glasses with X = Li, Na, K and Rb (LZB, NZB, KZB and RZB) were prepared. Infrared spectroscopy showed that the glass structure was similar to each other, while an increase of tetrahedrally coordinated boron with increasing field strength of the alkali was evident. In turn, the glass transition temperature (from differential thermal analysis) increased in the order: RZB (449 °C) < KZB (460 °C) < NZB (465 °C) < LZB (472 °C). Powders of each glass were mixed with organics to receive silver-glass-pastes containing 30 vol% glass and these were subjected to heating microscopy in air. Although similar onset temperatures of sintering were recorded for Ag-NZB and Ag-LZB glass pastes, and for Ag-RZB paste and KZB-Ag-paste, respectively, differences in the crystallization behavior and final densification were observed between the former and the latter group. These were translated in terms of differences in silver dissolution and reprecipitation among the two groups. Further, running the experiments in nitrogen gas showed that sintering of all pastes was considerably hampered. The slow-down of the sinter kinetics was found to be in line with the assumed lower oxidation and dissolution of silver ions into the glass-forming liquid.
Melting of Na2CO3-ZnO-B2O3 batches containing up to 16.8 wt% AgNO3 (5 mol% Ag2O in the target glass composition) was observed in situ by means of hot stage microscopy. In all batches metallic silver precipitation took place as most of the silver nitrate was reduced to metallic silver before Ag+ ions could be dissolved in the evolving borate melts. In turn, only traces of Ag+ (<300 ppmw) were dissolved in the sodium zinc borate glass melts under study. It is assumed that the oxidation to Ag+ was limited due to poor availability of reducible oxygen in the glass melts and presence of Na2O being a stronger base than Ag2O. Thus, the precipitated metallic silver formed droplets of different sizes. The larger droplets (d > 20 µm) were already settled at the bottom of the container and remained constant in size upon dwelling for 1 h at 1050 °C of about one hour and the subsequent cooling (45 K/min) to room temperature, whereas the smaller droplets (d < 20 µm) were mobile in the borate melt due to Marangoni and Stokes motion. For the latter droplets, coalescence was observed in situ. A growth of larger droplets at the expense of smaller ones, i.e., Ostwald ripening was also expected but could not be studied with the used experimental equipment.