Effects of organic additives on the microstructural, rheological and electrical properties of silver paste for LTCC applications

Silver powders were prepared by a chemical reduction method. Effects of different surfactants during this preparation process were examined. Using these silver powders, silver pastes were prepared for low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) applications. Another batch of different surfactants were added into the silver paste and evaluated. Moreover, various organic thixotropic agents were used to modify the thixotropy behavior of the silver paste. It was found that the surfactants of PVP (Polyvinyl pyrrolidone, for preparation of the silver powder) and Span-85 (for the preparation of silver paste) exhibited the best performance, with an electrical resistivity of 0.11 mΩ mm. The silver paste with the thixotropic agent of hydrogenated castor oil shows the largest thixotropic index of 1.56. Using different organic additives, the microstructural, rheological and electrical properties of the silver paste can be considerably improved, and our results shed light on the optimization of the silver paste for LTCC applications.