Refers to the detachment of individual layers in a composite material. This can, for example, involve the delamination of a sintered layer from a circuit carrier. However, individual layers in a substrate - e.g. copper and ceramic - can also become detached from each other.

Delamination is caused by thermo-mechanical stresses due to the joining process and different thermal expansion of the materials. Delamination can already happen during cooling after soldering or sintering. However, delamination also frequently occurs during operation of the electronics due to cracking at the interfaces of the joint. This results in air gaps in the structure, which impairs the cooling of the component and thus increases the temperature of the component. This in turn increases the thermo-mechanical stresses, which accelerates delamination. This leads to thermal runaway of the component and ultimately to failure.