The Influences of Cu-Coated SiC_p on the Porosity and Thermal Expansion Behavior of Cu-SiC_p Composites

摘要

The widespread use of metal matrix composites as the packaging materials is due to their tailorable thermal conductivity and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). For the same reason, silicon carbide reinforced copper matrix (Cu-SiC_p) composites are highly rated as thermal management materials in the electronic packaging applications. However, the Cu-SiC_p composites fabricated via the conventional powder metallurgy methods have inferior thermophysical properties due to the presence of porosity in the interface of copper matrix and the SiC_p reinforcement. In order to improve the bonding between the two constituents, the SiC_p were coated with copper via electroless coating process. Based on the experimental results, the CTE values of the copper coated Cu-SiC_p composites were found significantly lower than those of the non-Coated Cu-SiC_p composites. The CTEs of the composites tend to decrease as the porosity increases. The significant difference in the CTE values was related to the presence of sub-micron gap between the copper matrix and the SiC_p reinforcement.