Laser-driven shocks to explore the effects of aging on the adhesion of silver sintered on copper substrate

The adhesion of thin silver joints sintered on metallic substrates is a major issue for their potential use in power electronics modules. Here, we explore how laser shock-induced spallation can provide a way to study this adhesion. Due to wave interactions inside the shock-loaded assembly, dynamic tensile stresses are induced near the copper-silver interface, resulting in partial or full removal of the silver layer. In order to investigate the effects of aging on the interface strength, experiments are performed on both as-sintered and aged samples. Time-resolved measurements of the free surface velocity provide information on wave dynamics and interface failure, but finite-element simulations show that inferring a quantitative value of the bonding strength from these data is still challenging. Nevertheless, post-recovery observations provide original insight into the debonding process, including some complex effects of aging, consistent with trends reported in the literature.