Shear properties of isotropic conductive adhesive joints under different loading rates

Epoxy-based conductive adhesives have been widely used in the electronic field given the lead-free development of electronic packaging. The conductive adhesive joints must be subjected to shear loads during the service of electronic products considering the mismatch in mechanical properties between packaged chip and substrate. In this study, INSTRON 5544 universal material testing machine was used for tensile–shear tests of isotropic conductive adhesive joint specimens, which were prepared using pure copper plate adherend in the form of single-lap joints. Four loading rates, that is, 0.05, 0.5, 5, and 10 mm/min, were adopted. The relationship between shear load and displacement of two overlapping copper plates is deduced from a mechanical perspective. A mechanical model of the conductive adhesive shear specimen was developed by introducing dimensionless parameters, which are obtained from interfacial fracture energy and shear strength, to interpret the effect of loading rate on the shear properties of the conductive adhesive specimen considering the loading rate. Results show that this model can effectively reflect the relationship between shear load and displacement in the range of 0.05–10 mm/min.