A copper(Cu) thick film conductor containing glass and metal oxide for aluminum niride(AlN) substrate was developed. The conductor showed adhesion strength and reliability which were almost comparable to those of Ag-Pd conductors and also had good solder wettability and erosion properties. The Cu conductors must be fired in a nitrogen atmosphere containing oxygen gas. When they were fired under a low oxygen concentration, the gasses thermally decomposed and their properties changed which meant that the molten gasses could not flow smoothly to the AlN surface, so adhesion strength decreased. On the other hand, under high oxygen concentration, the adhesion strength increased because the thermal decomposition and property changes were suppressed. However, poorer solder wettability was brought about because copper was oxidized. Metal oxide added to the conductor could improve the wettability without decreasing the adhesion strength, even if it was fired at the higher oxygen concentration. Suitable metal oxides were CdO, Co3O5 and Fe2O3.

Solder joint reliability was studied for hybrid ICs, in which chip components such as FETs, resistors and capacitors were mounted with Sn-Sb solder on an insulated Al substrate and transfer-molded with epoxy resin. Suitable resin selection for molding was also studied. The structure was estimated to have a lifetime of more than ten thousand cycles in the thermal cycling test under the condition of -55/150, for FETs and passive elements. Equivalent plastic strains generated in the soldering layer for the non-molded structure were 4. 6% for the FETs and 3.5% for the passive elements. But, these strains were approximately 1/3 to 1/2 and 1/10 for the molded structure, respectively. This was the main reason for high reliability of the molded structure. Resins with a wide range of thermal expansion coefficient(8-26 ppm/)could be put to practical use, because of the higher reliability of the molded structure. However, a thermal expansion coefficient of about 15 ppm/ was prefered to decrease stress at the interface between the substrate and the molding resin.