Microelectronics Reliability Volume 175, December 2025, 115932 DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2025.115932

Low-Cycle Fatigue of Printed Sintered Silver in Extreme Environments: Mechanical Shock at Multiple Temperatures

Hayden Richards¹, Abhijit Dasgupta¹, Andres Bujanda², Harvey Tsang³, and Matthew Bowman<sup>2

1</sup>CALCE, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA
²DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, 21005, USA
³DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, 20783, USA

For more information about this article and related research, please contact Prof. Abhijit Dasgupta.

Abstract:

This study considers the response of printed hybrid electronic (PHE) assemblies to extreme mechanical shock (50,000 g base excitation) at multiple elevated temperatures (25–125 °C). Passive components were recessed into milled cavities in injection-molded polysulfone beams using a unique ‘mill-and-fill’ method. The components were interconnected to printed silver traces using printed solder, with circuits then formed from the silver traces. The populated beam specimens were subjected to drop testing in a clamped-clamped configuration without secondary impact using an accelerated-fall drop tower with dual mass shock amplifier (DMSA), resulting in strain magnitudes in the polysulfone substrate of ∼30,000 μm/m at rates up to ∼200 /s. A finite element model of the fully populated assembly was used to estimate plastic strain history at the failure site in the sintered silver.
Circuit failure occurred due to component separation from the substrate caused by cracking within the sintered silver beneath the soldered interconnect – a failure mode common across all temperatures. Maximum plastic strain magnitudes in the sintered silver were ∼ 0.11 m/m at rates of ∼1000/s. Total number of drops to failure was recorded in four different component locations at all temperatures. These results, together with transient nonlinear finite element simulation data, were then integrated by means of a cumulative damage model, to generate a low-cycle fatigue curve for sintered silver from 25 to 125 °C.

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