The use of metal and/or silver sintering pastes or sinterable sinter preforms, produced from them by application and drying, for attachment and electrical contacting of and for heat dissipation from electronic components, such as, for example, semi-conductor chips, is known in the electronics industry. Accordingly, said metal and/or silver sintering pastes and silver preforms were described, for example, on Jan. 217, 014 in the online publication “Are Sintered Silver Joints Ready for Use as interconnect Material in Microelectronic Packaging?” authored by KIM S. SIOW in the journal of ELECTRONIC MATERIALS (DOI: 1.0.1007/s11664-013-2967-3). Examples of patent literature on metal and/or silver sintering pastes include WO2011/026623A1, EP2425920A1, EP2428293A1, and EP2572814A1. Usually, said metal and/or silver sintering pastes are applied by printing, for example screen or stencil printing, onto support substrates, dried if needed, configured with electronic components, and then subjected to a sintering process. Without transitioning through the liquid state, the metal and/or silver particles become connected by diffusion during the sintering process while forming a solid, electrical current- and heat-conducting metallic and/or silver connection between substrate and electronic component.

However, as the applicant was able to ascertain, an attachment between components while forming a sintered connection can also be attained without, or without direct use of, a metal and/or silver sintering paste. Surprisingly, a silver sintering agent in the form of a layer-shaped silver sintering body having silver oxide surfaces that is produced according to the inventive method illustrated below can be used instead of a metal and/or silver sintering paste.