Use of decomposable polymer-coated submicron Cu particles with effective additive for production of highly conductive Cu films at low sintering temperature

A method for producing Cu films with low resistivity, based on low temperature sintering, is demonstrated. The Cu inks for preparing conductive Cu films consisted of Cu particles that were coated with a decomposable polymer (poly(propylenecarbonate), PPC) as well as a self-reducible copper formate/1-amino-2- propanol (CuF-IPA) complex as an additive. The sintering temperature used in this study was as low as 100 degrees C. Following sintering at a temperature of 100 degrees C, the lowest reported resistivity (8.8 x 10(-7) Omega m) was achieved through the use of Cu-based metal-organic decomposition (MOD) inks. This was due to the dual promotional effects of the aminolysis of PPC with IPA and the pyrolysis of the CuF-IPA complex.