Patent ID: 8298680

Claim:
A composition of a solder in which particles of a thermodynamically metastable alloy are dispersed, which alloy comprises an element that, upon application of the composition to a solderable metal oxide containing surface, form an intermetallic compound with the metal of said surface, wherein said intermetallic compound comprises both an alloying element of the solderable metal oxide containing surface and an element originating from the thermodynamically metastable particles, and wherein said particles of the thermodynamically metastable alloy are primarily constituted from a two-phase mixture of compounds comprising a first and a second component including a first shell of the thermodynamically metastable alloy in a first phase that is not thermodynamically metastable, and a second shell of the thermodynamically metastable alloy in a second phase that is thermodynamically metastable, wherein upon application of the solder composition to the solderable metal oxide containing surface, constituents of the metastable particles react with the solderable metal oxide containing surface to form said intermetallic compound and wet the surface to remove an oxide surface layer of the solderable metal oxide containing surface and replace the oxide surface layer with an electrically conductive adhesion layer of the intermetallic compound.