Ultrafast air bonding between SiC ceramic and SnAgTi alloy under the action of ultrasounds

With the aim of overcoming the limitations of traditional soldering ceramic methods for power device packaging, a simple but ultrafast bonding technology is reported. The effect and mechanism of ultrasonic action on the interfacial bonding and microstructure is investigated and thoroughly discussed. An ultrafast interfacial bond between SiC ceramics and SnAgTi active solder has been successfully achieved through a reaction at the interface at a low temperature of 250 °C in the extremely short time. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed that a silica layer on the surface of SiC reacted with Ti from the SnAgTi active solder to form a nanometer-thickness amorphous titania layer at the interface under the ultrasonic action, which creates an exceptional interfacial structure and facilitates bonding between the two dissimilar crystals. A discontinuous titania layer at the interface was identified within 0.1 s. With further increasing ultrasonic action time to 1 s, a continuous titania layer with a thickness of 7.6 ± 0.5 nm formed at the interface. A new interfacial reaction mechanism was revealed and it was found that ultrasound accelerated the reaction of liquid active solder/ceramic. Our finding demonstrated that ultrasound could be an effective approach for joining ceramics which is difficult to wet by a liquid metal at low temperature. The combined impact of ultrasonic cavitation and streaming dominated the mechanism and kinetics of the rapid interfacial reaction.