Yl. Shen et al., COEFFICIENTS OF THERMAL-EXPANSION OF METAL-MATRIX COMPOSITES FOR ELECTRONIC PACKAGING, Metallurgical and materials transactions. A, Physical metallurgy andmaterials science, 25(4), 1994, pp. 839-850
Finite element analyses of the effective coefficient of thermal expans
ion (CTE) of metal-matrix composites are presented, with a focus on co
mposites with potential for use in electronic packaging applications.
The analyses are based on two-dimensional plane strain and axisymmetri
c unit-cell models. The brittle phase is characterized as an isotropic
elastic solid with isotropic thermal expansion. The possibility of pl
astic deformation, described by an isotropic-hardening flow rule, is a
llowed for in the ductile phase. A wide range of reinforcement volume
fractions is considered. The effects of phase geometry, phase contigui
ty, ductile phase material properties, processing-induced residual str
esses, and brittle particle fracture are considered. The CTE is found
to be much less sensitive to phase distribution effects than is the te
nsile stiffness. The results show that there is a significant dependen
ce of the overall CTE on the phase contiguity (i.e., on whether the br
ittle or the ductile phase is continuous).