Fatigue strength testing of LTCC and alumina ceramics bonds

In this paper the results of fatigue strength tests of ceramic joints are presented. These tests have been performed on the samples subjected to thermal and vibration fatigue as well as on the reference samples without any additional loads. The main goal of the investigation was to determine the strength of hybrid ceramics joints using tensile testing machine. The experiment enabled evaluation of fatigue effects in the mentioned joints. Geometry of test samples has been designed according to FEM simulations, performed in ANSYS FEM environment. Thermal stress as well as the stress induced by vibrations have been analyzed in the designed model. In the experiments two types of ceramics have been used — LTCC green tape DP951 (DuPont) and alumina ceramic tape. The samples have been prepared by joining two sintered ceramic beams made of different types of material. The bonds have been realized utilizing low temperature glass or a layer of LTCC green tape.