Composites: Part A 34 (2003) 10231027

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The thermal expansion and mechanical properties of high reinforcement

content SiCp/Al composites fabricated by squeeze casting technology
Qiang Zhang*, Gaohui Wu, Guoqin Chen, Longtao Jiang, Bofeng Luan
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, No. 92 West Dazhi Street, Harbin 150001, China
Received 16 November 2002; revised 14 May 2003; accepted 10 July 2003

Abstract
With mixing different sized SiC particles, high reinforcement content SiCp/Al composites (Vp 50; 60 and 70%) for electronic packaging
applications were fabricated by squeeze casting technology. The composites were free of porosity and SiC particles distributed uniformly in
the composite. The mean linear coefficients of thermal expansion (20 100 8C) of SiCp/Al composites ranged from 8.3 to 10.8 1026/8C and
decreased with an increase in volume fraction of SiC content. The experimental coefficients of thermal expansion agreed well with predicted
values based on Kerners model. The Brinell hardness increased from 188.6 to 258.0, and the modulus increased from 148 to 204 GPa for the
corresponding composites. The bending strengths were larger than 370 MPa, but no obvious trend between bending strength and SiC content
was observed.
q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: A. Metalmatrix composites; A. Particle-reinforcement; B. Coefficient of thermal expansion; B. Mechanical properties; Squeeze casting

1. Introduction
Particles reinforced aluminum matrix composites
(PRAMCs) have received much recognition in electronic
packaging and thermal management (such as power module
base plates, printed wiring board cores, microprocessor lids,
or electric enclosures), for their flexible fabrication
techniques, tailorable thermo-physical properties and excellent specific mechanical properties [1 5]. Because temperature cycling often exists in the operating environment of
electronic components, a reinforcement volume fraction of
. 60% is necessary [1,5,6] for coefficient of thermal
expansion (CTE) matching with those of electronic
components or ceramic substrates to reduce thermally
induced stresses and increase the reliability of electronic
devices. The lifetime limitation of hybrid power modules
can be improved more than 10 times by replacing copper
with SiCp/Al baseplate [7].
Composites with 55 75 vol% particle reinforcements
are produced by powder metallurgy [4,8] or pressureless
infiltration process [9,10]. However, limitations of these two
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86-451-864-2164; fax: 86-451-8643922.
E-mail address: zhang_tsiang@sina.com (Q. Zhang).
1359-835X/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/S1359-835X(03)00253-7

techniques include relatively higher cost, complicated

processing steps, longer production cycles or specific
protecting atmosphere. In contrast to them, squeeze casting
technology is believed to be an effective technique because
of the advantages of higher production rates, elimination of
expensive equipments, feasibility of mass production and
near-net products.
Accordingly, the purposes of present work are two-fold:
firstly, to produce high reinforcement content SiCp/Al
composites by squeeze casting process and examine their
microstructure; secondly, to investigate their thermal
expansion and mechanical properties, then to further
understand the feasibility of SiCp/Al composites for
electronic packaging.

2. Materials and experimental

2.1. Materials preparation
The fabrication of high reinforcement content composite
is related to the packing fraction of particles. It is believed
that the packing density of single size spheres is limited and
0.74 is the largest theoretical packing fraction. But in fact, it
is difficult to obtain such a higher packing. It was reported

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Q. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 34 (2003) 10231027

Table 1
Chemical compositions of 4032Al (wt%)

4032Al

Si

Cu

Mg

Fe

Ni

Zn

Al

11.99

0.5 1.3

0.81.3

1.0

0.51.3

0.25

Bal.

that the packing fraction of random arrays of single size

spheres varied from 0.59 to 0.64, depending on the packing
conditions [11].
However, an increased packing fraction can be obtained
by mixing particles that have a proper particle size
distribution, because fine particles can pack more efficiently
around larger ones [12 14]. Even a very high packing
fraction more than 90% could be achieved by mixing the
proper volume fraction of different particle sizes that
differed by several orders of magnitude [14].
On the basis of above analysis, three average particle
sizes of 20, 40 and 60 mm were used in the present study and
the particles were divided into three groups: (I) 20 mm SiC;
(II) 20 and 40 mm SiC with a weight ratio of 3:2; (III) 20 and
60 mm SiC with a weight ratio of 4:1. The composites of 50,
60 and 70% were produced by group (I), (II) and (III),
respectively. The aluminum matrix was an Al Si alloy
(4032Al) whose nominal compositions were listed in
Table 1. This alloy was chosen for the purpose of decreasing
CTE efficiently and of avoiding interfacial reaction between
aluminum and SiC. Table 2 summarized the properties of
SiC particle and 4032Al.
The SiCp/Al composites were fabricated by squeeze
casting technology, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Firstly, the SiC
particles with different sizes and weight ratios were mixed
in distilled water by mechanical stirring for 2 h, and dried
at 130 8C for 24 h. Then they were filled and pressed into
a mold to produce a SiC preform according to the given
volume fraction. After that, the preform was pre-heated in
a tool steel die. At the same time, the aluminum alloy was
melt, degassed, cleaned in a graphite crucible and heated
to 750 800 8C. When the preform was heated to 500
600 8C, the molten aluminum was poured into the tool
steel die and a vertical pressure up to 100 MPa was
applied immediately to force molten aluminum to
infiltrate into SiC preform completely. The pressure was

Table 2
Properties of SiC particle [15] and 4032Al [16]
Youngs Shear
Bulk
Poissions
Density CTE
(g/cm3) ( 1026/ modulus modulus modulus ratio
8C)
(GPa)
(GPa)
(GPa)
SiC
3.18
4032Al 2.68
a

4.7
20.8a

By experiments.

450
69

192
29.7

225
77.5

0.17
0.33

Fig. 1. Fabrication process of SiCp/Al composites.

maintained for about 5 min until the solidification was

complete.
2.2. Testing
An S-570 scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used
to examine the microstructure of as-fabricated SiCp/Al
composites. Prior to the following tests, the composites
were annealed at 410 8C for 3 h, and then furnace cooled.
The CTE was measured on a DIL 402C Dilameter
(NETZSCH Corp.) with a heating rate of 5 8C/min. And a
helium atmosphere with a flowing rate of 50 ml/min was
used to keep the chamber temperature consistent. Based on
the measured curves of relative length changes versus
temperatures, the CTE was calculated between 20 and
100 8C. To diminish systematic errors, the dilatometer was
calibrated by measuring an alumina sample under identical
conditions.
Brinell hardness (HB) tests were performed on a HBV-30
double-purpose tester with a 1mm ball indenter. A load of
30 kgf was applied and maintained for 30 s. Brinell
hardness, instead of Vickers hardness measurement, was
used because Vickers hardness would be affected by the
reinforcements in an uncertain way depending on the
reinforcement position under and around the indentation.
Three-point bending tests with 30 mm span were carried out
at room temperature on an Instron5569 universal electron
tension testing system. The specimens were all 4 mm wide,
3 mm thick and 36 mm in length. Fractography observations
were carried out also on S-570 SEM.

Q. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 34 (2003) 10231027

1025

Fig. 2. SEM micrographs of SiCp/Al composites. (a) 50% SiCp/Al composite, (b) 60% SiCp/Al composite, (c) 70% SiCp/Al composite.

Turners model [18] considers the uniform hydrostatic

stresses and gives the CTE of a composite as:

3. Results and discussion

3.1. SEM microstructure examination

ac
Fig. 2 showed the SEM microstructure of as-fabricated
SiCp/Al composites. It was found that larger SiC particles
were necessary in larger volume fraction composites.
Though different SiC particles were used in the different
composites, SiC particles distributed uniformly in the
composite and fine SiC particles occupied the interstitial
positions around coarse particles efficiently. Three SiCp/Al
composites were all dense and macroscopically homogeneous, and seldom particles cluster was observed. A
dense microstructure was beneficial to electronic packaging
applications because of improvement in mechanical
strength and heat conductivity.
3.2. Thermal expansion analysis
The measured CTEs of SiCp/Al composites were 8.3, 9.7
and 10.8 1026/8C for the 70, 60 and 50% composites,
respectively. The CTEs were reduced with an increase in
volume fraction of SiC. In a SiCp/Al composite, the thermal
expansion behavior is influenced by the thermal expansion
of aluminum matrix and the tightened restriction of SiC
particles. Since the restriction of SiC increased with the
increasing of particles content, the CTEs of SiCp/Al
composites were reduced. The CTEs were slightly higher
than those of ceramic substrates, but the difference in CTE
was favorable since it would make the substrates in
compression when cooling from elevated temperature to
ambient temperature during welding. The compressive
forces could reduce the probability of component cracking.
Several theoretical models were proposed to predict the
CTE of particulate composite. If the matrix modulus is
much smaller than that of reinforcement, the CTE of a
composite is expressed as rule-of-mixture [17] (ROM):

ac am Vm ap Vp

am Km Vm ap Kp Vp
Km Vm Kp Vp

where K is the bulk modulus.

Both the normal and shear stress are taken into account in
Kerners model [19], and the CTE of a composite is
expressed as:

ac am Vm ap Vp Vp Vm ap 2 am
Kp 2 Km

Vm Km Vp Kp 3Kp Km =4Gm

where G is shear modulus.

Fig. 3 shows the comparison between above theoretical
predictions and experimental data. As could be seen,
experimental data were in good agreement with the
predicted values based on Kerners model, but deviated
from ROM and Turners model. This may be attributed to
the fact that normal and shear stress were included in
Kerners model, and ROM or Turners model could not
describe the complicated internal stresses inside a
composite.

where a is the CTE, V is the volume fraction, and subscripts

c, m, p refer to the composite, matrix and particle,
respectively.

Fig. 3. Comparison between theoretical predictions and experimental

CTEs.

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Q. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 34 (2003) 10231027

Table 3
Mechanical properties of SiCp/Al composites
Brinell hardness

50% SiCp/Al
60% SiCp/Al
70% SiCp/Al

188.8(6.0)
208.7(5.5)
258.0(7.2)

Bending strength (MPa)

422.0(12.6)
371.8(10.1)
390.7(10.4)

Modulus (GPa)
Measured

H-S model

Measured/H-S model (%)

148(10.1)
165(7.3)
204(8.9)

164.3
193.8
231.4

90.1
85.1
88.2

Standard deviation was shown in parentheses.

3.3. Mechanical properties

The mechanical properties of SiCp/Al composites were
shown in Table 3. As could be seen, the hardness of SiCp/
Al composites increased with the increasing of SiC
content. This could be ascribed to two factors. On one
hand, the effective loading volume increased as the
volume fraction of SiC increased. At the same time, SiC
particles were larger in the higher Vp composites. This
would enlarge the contact areas between indenter and
particle, then help to improve the hardness of SiCp/Al
composites.
The bending strengths of SiCp/Al composites were larger
than 370 MPa, with a maximum of 422 MPa. But no

obvious trend between bending strength and SiC content

was observed. It is believed that larger SiC particles in the
higher Vp composites tend to fracture brittly because larger
SiC particles had many larger defects and the bending stress
of SiC was dominated by the largest flaw. Therefore, besides
SiC content concerned, some other factors such as particle
size and particle defects would influence the bending
strength of the composite. Fig. 4 shows the bending
fractographs of SiCp/Al composites. The matrix failed in
a ductile manner, especially in the 50% SiCp/Al composite,
as shown in Fig. 4 (b). The SiC particles fractured brittly,
and some facets were found in the larger SiC particle,
indicating that fracture propagated through the particles
with shear mode.

Fig. 4. SEM bending fractographs of SiCp/Al composites (a) 50% SiCp/Al composite. (b) High magnification image of the framed area in (a). (c) 60% SiCp/Al
composite, (d) 70% SiCp/Al composite.

Q. Zhang et al. / Composites: Part A 34 (2003) 10231027

1027

SiC. The experimental CTEs were in good agreement

with predicted values based on Kerners model.
3. The Brinell hardness and modulus of SiCp/Al composites increased with an increase in the volume fraction of
SiC, and the bending strengths were larger than
370 MPa, but no obvious trend between bending strength
and SiC content was observed.
References

Fig. 5. Specific moduli of conventional packaging materials and SiCp/Al

composites.

However, the moduli of SiCp/Al composites increased as

the volume fraction of SiC increased. A Hashin-Shtrikman
model [17] (H-S model) was used to predict the modulus of
SiCp/Al composites. In this model, the modulus of a
composite is expressed as:
Ec E m

Em Vm Ep Vp 1
Ep Vm Em Vp 1

where E is the modulus.

The calculated data were also presented in Table 3. It
could be found that the measured moduli were lower than
the theoretical values, but reached their 85% of them,
indicating that H-S model was valid for the prediction of
composite modulus.
The density of SiCp/Al composite was about
3 103 kg/m3, resulting in a high specific modulus. Fig. 5
illustrates the comparison of specific modulus among several
conventional packaging materials [1,3,5]. As could be seen,
the specific modulus of 70% SiCp/Al composite was more
than 3 times higher than those of preferred packaging
materialsKovar and Copper. A high specific modulus
would diminish electronic components while maintaining its
stiffness. Then the electronic devices could be made thinner
and lighter. Additionally, in cold plate design, the thermal
resistance was in inverse proportion to the thickness of plate
[20]. Therefore, the decrease in thickness could reduce
thermal resistance and enhance thermal diffusivity.

4. Conclusions
1. With mixing proper volume fractions of different particle
sizes, 50, 60 and 70% SiCp/Al composites were
fabricated by squeeze casting process, then the composites were macroscopically dense and homogeneous.
2. The linear CTEs of SiCp/Al composites ranged from 8.3
to 10.8 1026/8C, depending on the volume fraction of

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