Effects of silver oxalate additions on the physical characteristics of low-temperature-curing MOD silver paste for thick-film applications

In this paper, the effect of silver oxalate addition on physical characteristics of metallo-organic-decomposition (MOD) silver screen-printable paste for thick film technology was investigated. The addition of silver oxalate in the paste not only produces fresh fine silver particles after curing, but also reduces the decomposition temperature of the lubricant coated on the silver flakes. This is an effective route to provide fine silver particles to the paste without significantly changing the rheological behavior. At the curing temperature of 225 °C, the resistivity decreases from 180.1 to 31.9 μΩ-cm, as the silver oxalate content increases from 0 to 10 wt%. This is due to the fact that active silver catalysts produced increase the packing density of silver flakes, and also the removal of lubricant from the surface of silver flakes enhances the electrical conductivity, thereby decreasing the resistance of film.