Proceedings of 1998 International Symposium on Electrical Insulating Materials, in conjunction with 1998 Asian International Conference on Dielectrics and

Electrical Insulation and the 30th Symposium on Electrical Insulating Materials, 'Ibyohashi, Japan, Sept. 27-30, 1998

A394

SPACE CHARGE BEHAVIOUR AND ION MIGRATION IN A PRINTED WIRING BOARD K. Fukunaga and T. Maeno Communications Research Laboratory, Tokyo 184-8795, Japan K. Okamoto Fuji Electric Corporate Research and Development, Ltd., Kanagawa 240-0194, Japan
INTRODUCTION Metal-base printed wiring boards (PWB) are widely used in power electronic devices because they dissipate heat effectively. PWBs generally consist of three layers: an A1 base-electrode, an insulation made of epoxy resin, and a copper electrode. They are now used in inverter circuits under a high electric field of about 1 - 3 kV/mm, so the reliability of the insulation layer has become more important. The surface migration ageing that occurs between the wires printed on the surface of an insulation has been researched [I]. The growth of migration inside the insulation, however, has not yet been sufficiently discussed. The copper ion migration from an anode into the insulation layer was first observed by means of an electron probe X-ray microanalyser (EPMA) and a scanning electron microscope several years ago, and was investigated in terms of the chemical analysis of ion impurities [2].
We used the pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) space charge measurement system [3,4,5] to observe copper ion migration occurring in an insulation layer of a metal-base PWB, and compared the space charge profile with ion impurities detected by ion chromatography and copper distribution observed by EPMA. In this paper we show that the space charge measurement is effective for investigating not only high-voltage insulations, but also electronic insulations.

The charge distribution was measured by the highresolution PEA space charge measurement system with a spatial resolution of about 10 pm [5] shown in Fig. 2 (a). New software was used for deconvolution and calibration of the output signals. The software can display the charge, electric field, and potential distributions simultaneously, as shown in Fig. 2 (b). Space charge behaviour was observed at room temperature under 1.25 kV (about 8.3 kV/mm), and after being shortcircuited. Electric field profiles are also shown by calculating from the detected signals due to the space charge. First, we measured the as-manufactured samples, then we observed the samples aged at 85 "C and 70 % RH and at 60 "C and 90 % RH for 18 hrs without applying a voltage as pre-ageing treatment. After that we measured the space charge profiles of the aged sample at 1.25 kV for 48 hrs at 85 "C and 70 % RH and at 60 "C and 90 % RH. These ageing conditions are similar to those of the standard accelerated-ageingtests of PWBs in Japan. A section of each sample was precisely examined using a scanning electron microscope before the ageing test was performed. Copper ion migration in an aged sample was observed by EPMA.

EXPERIMENTAL
A metal-base PWB consists of three layers (Fig. 1). The insulation layer is generally made of epoxy resin with an inorganic filler. In this experiment, we mainly used a silicaepoxy sample whose filler was silicon dioxide. The relative dielectric constant E, was 4.8 and dielectric loss tan 6 was 2.9 % . I Cu electrode \

(a) A test electrode of the PEA system.

(b) An example screen of the analyzing software.

Figure 1. A printed wiring board sample.

Figure 2. Spacfe charge measurement system,

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SPACE CHARGE PROFILES DURING THE ACCELERATED AGEING TESTS

Figure 3 shows a space charge profile of the asmanufactured sample at 1.25 kV. The charges on both the electrodes and the internal charges near the electrodes were clearly observed. Since the internal charges were localized near the electrodes, which have a polarity opposite that of the charges, the internal charge must be due to ions initially included in the sample. Figure 4 (a) shows the space charge profile after being kept in a chamber for 18 hrs at 85 "C and 70 % RH as preageing treatment. The positive charge near the cathode was less than that of the as-manufactured sample. The negative charge near the anode, on the other hand, appeared just after applying 1.25 kV. The positive and negative internal charges rapidly decreased after being shortcircuited. Compared to the results of the as-manufactured sample, the internal charges were able to move easily. Here, the major ion concentrations detected from the extract with pure water at 85 "C for 48 hrs were chloride C1- ( 1 I .5 ppm), sulfur oxides SO:- (508.9 ppm), and ammonium NH,' (27.6 ppm). These ions formed a hetero charge distribution in the sample. Although the electric field was increased by 5 - 10 % at the interfaces between the insulation layer and both the electrodes, the average electric field was about -8 kV/mm, similar to that obtained in the case of the as-manufactured samplejust after voltage application. Figure 4 (b) shows the copper distribution observed using an electron probe X-ray microanalyser. In this figure, the white area indicates the existence of copper. Since it appeared only at the copper electrode itself, it was assumed that the copper ion had not yet migrated into the sample. Figure 5 (a) shows the charge profile after the application of 1.25 kV dc for 48 hrs in the chamber kept at 85 "C and 70 %RH. The positive charge was clearly visible near the anode. This distribution suggests that a conductive region was formed at a distance of around 70 pm from the anode.

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(a) Space charge profiles

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(b) Copper profile observed by EPMA Figure 4. Space charge and electric field profiles and copper distribution of the pre-aged sample at 85 "C and 70 %RH for 18 hrs.

(a) Space charge profiles

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Figure 3. Space charge and electric field profiles of an as-manufactured sample at 1.25 kV.

Figure 5. Space charge and electric field profiles and copper distribution of the aged sample at 85 "C and 70 %RH for 48 hrs..

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EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERE CONDITION ON THE SPACE CHARGE FORMATION

In the case of a pre-aged sample at 60 C and 90 % RH, the space charge and electric field profiles were similar to those obtained at 85 C and 70 % (Fig. 6 (a)). Similar ions would thus also be generated under this condition. After the ageing at 1.25 kV, however, the space charge profile did not show a noticeable high-conductive region. EPMA observation did not show copper ion migration either, meaning that the temperature and humidity strongly affect the ion migration in a PWB. This phenomena can be monitored by space charge observation.

CONCLUSIONS
The space charge profiles of a metal-base printed wiring board were observed. High conductive region observed by the pulsed electroacoustic method is as same as the copper migrated region observed by X-ray microanalysis. We found that space charge observation using the pulsed electroacoustic method is useful for investigating the ageing phenomena of a printed wiring board.

REFERENCES
[ 1]G. T. Kohman, Silver Migration in Electrical Insulation, Bell Syst. Tech. J., Vol. 34, p. 1115, 1955. [2]K. Okamoto, T. Maeda, and K. Haga, Dielectric property of copper ionic migration at insulation layer on metal-base PWB, Joum. Japan Inst. Inter-connectinand Packaging Electronic Circuits, Vol. 12, p. 418, 1997. [3]G. M. Sessler, Charge Distribution and Transport in Polymers, IEEE Trans. Dielectrics EI, Vol. 4, p. 614, 1997. [4]A. Gustafsson, P. Carstensen, C . Tomkvist, A. Ericsson, and U. Nilsson, Influence of Carbon Black in Polyethylene on Space Charge Accumulation, Annual Report CEIDP, Minneapolis, USA, p. 56, 1997. [ 5 ] T. Maeno and K. Fukunaga, High-resolution PEA charge distribution measurement system, IEEE Trans. Dielectrics EI, Vol. 3, p. 754, 1996.

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