Effects of Organic Additives on Residual Stress and Surface Roughness of Electroplated Copper for Flexible PCB

For the application of flexible printed circuit board (FPCB), electroplated copper is required to have low surface roughness and residual stress. In the paper, the effects of surface roughness and residual stress of electroplated copper as thick as $8{\mu}m$ were studied on organic additives such as inhibitor, leveler and accelerator. Polyimide film coated with sputtered copper was used as a substrate. Surface roughness and surface morphology were measured by 3D-laser surface analysis and FESEM, respectively. Residual stress was calculated by Stoney's equation after measuring radius curvature of specimen. The addition of additives except high concentration of accelerator in the electrolyte decreased surface roughness of electroplated copper film. Such a tendency was explained by the function of additives among which the inhibitor and the leveler inhibit electroplating on a whole surface and prolusions, respectively. The accelerator plays a role in accelerating the electroplating in valley parts. The inhibitors and the leveler increased residual stress, whereas the accelerator decreased it. It was thought to be related with entrapped additives on electroplated copper film rather than the preferred orientation of electroplated copper film. The reason why additives lead to residual stress remains for the future work.