Electrically conductive adhesives: Effect of particle composition and size distribution

Abstract

The effects of particle composition and size distribution on the electrical properties of conductive adhesives were studied. Silver‐plated glass and silver‐plated nickel particles with both narrow (37‐44 μm) and broad (< 44 μm) size distributions were dispersed in an epoxy matrix. In all cases, formulations incorporating narrow particle size distributions required greater concentrations of particles to exceed the percolation threshold for electrical conduction than when broad particle distributions were used. Differences between glass and nickel particles were observed and attributed to the higher density of nickel particles, as well as subtle variations in particle size distributions.