Thick film conductive copper pastes that are lead-free and cadmium-free. The inventive copper pastes possess desirable characteristics, including good solderability, good wire bondability, a low firing temperature, and a wide temperature processing window, and provide excellent adhesion to a variety of substrates, including alumina and glass coated stainless steel substrates, as well as low resistivity, and a microstructure after firing that is dense and substantially free of pores.