With the increasing development of the technology, electrically conductive adhesives and sealants are widely used in electronic assembly, weldless interconnection, component renovation, display interconnections and electronics packaging. Electrically conductive adhesives and sealants usually consist of the matrix resin, curing agent and curing accelerator, conductive particles and other additives, among which conductive particles play an important role. Conductive adhesives and sealants have been developed rapidly as the interconnecting material of the electronic sealing industry with new updates and iterations of electronic equipment in recent years. In addition, nano silver/copper paste and composite conductive paste have also been increasingly studied and commercialized for high temperature, high reliability and lead-free application.
Compared with traditional tin-lead solder, electrically conductive adhesives and sealants are increasingly explored for wider application in the electronic assembly and are demonstrated to be as competitive as lead-free interconnects. Furthermore, those adhesives and sealants have also been demonstrated to be highly adaptable to the development trends of the microelectronic assembly industry towards miniaturization, high density and high integration and the increasingly strict environmental protection legislation. The purpose of this special issue is to collate and update on the recent research, innovation and commercialization of electrically conductive adhesives and sealants in the microelectronic and photovoltaic industries.
Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
Tin-based solder
Silver and copper-based sinter-bonding
Flexible electronics and printed substrate circuit
Bonding in solar/photovoltaic cells
Reflow and surface mount technology
Chemistries of resins and curing agents
Conductive particles and their surface modifications and related preparation
Intermetallic growth and characterization for solder alloy
Electro-chemical migration and reliability issues
Interconnects and thermal-mechanical reliability models
Adhesion and mechanical performance
Electrical and thermal conductivity
Crystal orientation and growth of the bonding materials and fillers
