Publications
Residual Stress Developed During the Cure of Thermosetting Polymers: Optimizing Cure Schedule to Minimize Stress
When thermosetting polymers are used to bond or encapsulate electrical, mechanical or optical assemblies, residual stress, which often affects the performance and/or reliability of these devices, develops within the structure. The Thin-Disk-on-Cylinder structural response test is demonstrated as a powerful tool to design epoxy encapsulant cure schedules to reduce residual stress, even when all the details of the material evolution during cure are not explicitly known. The test's ability to (1) distinguish between cohesive and adhesive failure modes and (2) demonstrate methodologies to eliminate failure and reduce residual stress, make choices of cure schedules that optimize stress in the encapsulant unambiguous. For the 828/DEA/GMB material in the Thin-Disk-on-Cylinder geometry, the stress associated with cure is significant and outweighs that associated with cool down from the final cure temperature to room temperature (for measured lid strain, IεcureI > IεthermalI). The difference between the final cure temperature and the temperature at which the material gels, Tf-Tgel, was demonstrated to be a primary factor in determining the residual stress associated with cure. Increasing Tf-Tgel leads to a reduction in cure stress that is described as being associated with balancing some of the 828/DEA/GMB cure shrinkage with thermal expansion. The ability to tune residual stress associated with cure by controlling Tf-Tgel would be anticipated to translate to other thermosetting encapsulation materials, but the times and temperatures appropriate for a given material may vary widely.