Progress of Interconnect Materials in the Third-generation Semiconductor and Their Low-temperature Sintering of Copper Nanoparticles

Semiconductor materials are the core of modern technology development and industrial innovation, with high frequency, high pressure, high temperature, high power, and other high properties under severe conditions or super properties needed by the "double carbon" goal, the new silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) as representative of the third generation of semiconductor materials gradually into industrial applications. For the third-generation semiconductor, there are several development directions in its packaging interconnection materials, including high-temperature solder, transient liquid phase bonding materials, conductive adhesives, and low-temperature sintered nano-Ag/Cu, of which nano-Cu, due to its excellent thermal conductivity, low-temperature sintering characteristics, and good processability, has become a new scheme for packaging interconnection, with low cost, high reliability, and scalability. Recently, the trend from material research to industrial chain end-use is pronounced. This review firstly introduces the development overview of semiconductor materials and summarizes the categories of third-generation semiconductor packaging interconnect materials. Then, combined with recent research results, it further focuses on the application of nano-Cu low-temperature sintering in electronic fields such as packaging and interconnection, mainly including the impact of particle size and morphology, surface treatment, and sintering process on the impact of nano-Cu sintered body conductivity and shear properties. Finally, it summarizes the current dilemmas and the difficulties, looking forward to the future development. This review provides a reference for the research on low-temperature sintered copper nanoparticles in the field of interconnect materials for the third-generation semiconductor.