Conductive composition and conductive feature formed at low temperatures

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9337362-B2
Application number	US-201113877824-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2011
Priority date	Oct 19, 2010
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

A method for forming a conductive feature. The method includes providing a substrate and providing a conductive composition. The conductive composition includes metal particles, a non-acid protic solvent, and a high polarity solvent. The non-acid protic solvent and high polarity solvent are present in concentrations sufficient to ionize the non-acid protic solvent and remove oxides when heated. The method further includes heating the composition to a temperature less than about 250° C. to form a conductive feature having less than about ten times the resistivity of bulk copper.

First claim

I claim:

1. A conductive composition comprising:
copper powder;
a non-acid protic solvent; and
a high polarity solvent; and

wherein the high polarity solvent has a dipole moment, μ, greater than 10.0×10 −30 Cm and a permittivity, ∈ r , greater than 25, and wherein the conductive composition, upon heating, is cured and forms a conductive feature on a substrate, the conductive feature having a resistivity of less than about ten times that of bulk copper, and wherein the non-acid protic solvent and high polarity solvent are used in concentrations sufficient to generate ions from the non-acid protic solvent which act as a fluxing agent to remove oxides from the surface of the copper powder during formation of the conductive feature.

2. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the copper powder includes a combination of nanometer and micrometer-sized particles.

3. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the non-acid protic solvent is ethylene glycol.

4. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the high polarity solvent is dimethyl sulfoxide.

5. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the conductive composition is substantially devoid of metal precursor compounds.

6. The composition of claim 1 , wherein the composition is cured at a temperature of up to about 250° C., for about 10 minutes.

Assignees

• Dong Chun Christine
• Air Prod & Chem

Inventors

• Dong Chun Christine

Classifications

• H10F77/211 Primary

  for photovoltaic cells · CPC title

• H01B1/22

  the conductive material comprising metals or alloys · CPC title

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title

• C08K3/08

  Metals · CPC title

• H01L31/022425 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic