Effective control of the heat generated from electronics and semiconductor devices requires a high thermal conductivity and a low thermal expansion coefficient appropriate for devices or modules. A method of reducing the thermal expansion coefficient of Cu has been suggested wherein a ceramic filler having a low thermal expansion coefficient is applied to Cu, which has high thermal conductivity. In this study, using pressureless sintering rather than costly pressure sintering, a polymer solution synthesis method was used to make nano-sized Cu powder for application to Cu matrix with an AlN filler. Due to the low sinterability, the sintered Cu prepared from commercial Cu powder included large pores inside the sintered bodies. A sintered Cu body with Zn, as a liquid phase sintering agent, was prepared by the polymer solution synthesis method for exclusion of pores, which affect thermal conductivity and thermal expansion. The pressureless sintered Cu bodies including Zn showed higher thermal conductivity (180 W/m·K) and lower thermal expansion coefficient (15.8×10−6/℃) than did the monolithic synthesized Cu sintered body.

Inkjet printing was successfully done using Cu nano powder ink after these Cu nano powders were dry-coated with 1-octanethiol for oxidation prevention. 1-octanethiol, which is Self-Assembled Multi-layers (SAMs), was coated approximately 10-nm thick on the surface of Cu nano powders. 1-Octanol, which has the same chain length as that for 1-octanethiol, was used as a solvent to make the ink for inkjet printing. As a result, the fabricated ink was dispersed for about 4 weeks, and after printing and heat treatment at for 4 hours, the resistivity for the printed pattern was measured to be .

Nano Cu powders, synthesized by Pulsed Wire Evaporation (PWE) method, have been compacted by Magnetic Pulsed Cojpaction(MPC) method. The microstructure and mechanical properties were analyzed. The optimal condition for proper mechanical properties with nanostructure was found. Both pure nano Cu powders and passivated nano Cu powders were compacted, and the effect of passivated layer on the mechanical properties was investigated. The compacts by MPC, which had ultra-fine and uniform nanostructure, showed higher density of 95% of theoretical density than that of static compaction. The pur and passivated Cu compacted at exhibited maximum hardnesses of 248 and 260 Hv, respectively. The wear resistance of those compacts corresponded to the hardness.