On the Increase of the Current Carrying Capability of the Conductor Tracks Made of Electrically Conductive Adhesives

A study was conducted on increasing the current carrying capability of conductor tracks made of electrically conductive composite materials to know the limitations when used in the manufacture of electronic modules by additive techniques. Conductor tracks patterns having three different widths were first produced on dielectric support by screen printing and curing. The study method was an indirect one consisting in measuring the electrical resistance of the tracks of equal lengths. The electrical resistance of each conductor track was measured using the 4-point method. Very good results were obtained for the samples having four times the initial width of the track, but the cost of the material based mainly on silver, increases to the same extent. Next, the same patterns were submitted to an electroless copper plating process and the electrical resistance measurements were performed again. The experiment revealed that the electrical resistances after copper plating show very close values for the same track width, regardless of the material. The conductor tracks were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM EDS).