Time- and Temperature-Dependence of Fracture Energies Attributed to Copper/Epoxy Bonds

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Date
2004-07-30
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Virginia Tech
Abstract

When bonds between copper and printed circuit board laminates are subjected to impulsive forces, the need arises to characterize fracture energies corresponding to related, high-speed failure events. Work (or energy) is required to create new surface area—with associated dissipation events—during fracture, and this energy (for a given material system) is dependent on the speed of crack propagation, the locus of failure, and the temperature of the bond when it is broken. Since the 90° peel test has been widely employed in quasi-static fracture testing of film adhesion for printed circuit board applications, this test was first used as a basis to which other test results could be compared. A test fixture was designed and built for quasi-static peel testing that accommodated peeling at different angles and temperatures. A similar test was then desirable for the direct comparison of dynamic fracture events to those quasi-static results. The “loop peel test” was thus developed to mimic the common 90° peel test and to quantify the time- and temperature-dependent fracture energies of peel specimens during low-velocity impact. This test has been successfully used to determine the apparent critical strain energy release rate of copper/epoxy bonds for low-velocity impact conditions (1-10 m/s), for a case of near-interfacial failure. The falling wedge test has also been adapted to estimate the apparent critical strain energy release rate at similar fracture conditions. Four types of printed circuit boards have been analyzed with the above impact test methods as well as with their corresponding quasi-static tests, and the fracture energies measured with the impact tests have been compared to those obtained using quasi-static tests. Fracture energies of the material systems considered were dependent on time (speed of fracture), temperature, and the amount of moisture migration, as determined via humidity conditioning parameters.

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Keywords
Impact, Loop Peel Test, Fracture Mechanics, Falling Wedge Test
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