Test vehicle for studying thermal conductivity of die attach adhesives for high temperature electronics

Polymer adhesives offer a viable method for mounting silicon dies for high temperature applications. Here a test vehicle for comparing the thermal conductivity of different die attach materials is presented. The setup can be used to determine the degree of degradation of polymers. It consists of a mock die that has an integrated thick film heater, which is mounted onto a substrate. In operation, the substrate is placed on a heatsink and the die is heated. When the temperature reaches equilibrium the heater is switched off and the temperature of the die is measured as it cools. The time constant of the temperature decay is calculated to give the thermal conductivity. In this paper the thermal conductivity of an epoxy die attach adhesive is compared to its shear strength.