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Film thickness dependent microstructural changes of thick copper metallizations upon thermal fatigue

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2017

Stephan Bigl Open the ORCID record for Stephan Bigl [Opens in a new window] ,
Claus O.W. Trost ,
Stefan Wurster ,
Megan J. Cordill  and
Daniel Kiener
Stephan Bigl*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben 8700, Austria
Claus O.W. Trost
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben 8700, Austria
Stefan Wurster
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben 8700, Austria
Megan J. Cordill
Affiliation:
Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Leoben 8700, Austria
Daniel Kiener
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, Leoben 8700, Austria
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: stephan-paul.bigl@stud.unileoben.ac.at
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Abstract

With increasing performance requirements in power electronics, the necessity has emerged to investigate the thermo-mechanical behavior of thick Cu metallizations (≥5 µm). Cu films on rigid substrates in the range of 5–20 µm were thermally cycled between 170 and 400 °C by a fast laser device. Compared to the initial microstructures, a texture transition toward the {100} out-of-plane orientation with increasing film thickness was observed during thermo-mechanical cycling, along with an abnormal grain growth in the {100}-oriented grains and a gradual development of substructures in a crystallographic arrangement. Compared to the well-studied thin Cu film counterparts (≤5 µm), the surface damage showed a 1/hf dependency. Transition from an orientation independent (hf = 5 µm) to an orientation specific thermo-mechanical fatigue damage (hf = 10, 20 µm) was observed following a higher damager tolerance in {100} oriented grains.

Keywords

texturefatiguethermal stresses
Type
Invited Papers
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 32 , Issue 11 , 14 June 2017 , pp. 2022 - 2034
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2017 

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Footnotes

Contributing Editor: George M. Pharr

References

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