• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.234-237
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• 2014

In this paper, a copper foil-thick grapheme (thin graphite sheet)-copper foil structure is reported to achieve mechanically strong and high thermal conductive layer suitable for heat spreading components. Since graphene provides much higher thermal conductivity than copper, thick graphene embedded copper layer can achieve higher effective thermal conductivity which is proportional to graphene/copper thickness ratio. Since copper is nonreactive with carbon material which is graphene, chromium is used as adhesion layer to achieve copper-thick graphene-copper bonding for graphene embedded copper layer. Both sides of thick graphene were coated with chromium as an adhesion layer followed by copper by sputtering. The copper foil was bonded to sputtered copper layer on thick graphene. Angstrom's method was used to measure the thermal conductivity of fabricated copper-thick graphene-copper structure. The thermal conductivity of the copper-thick graphene-copper structures is measured as $686W/m{\cdot}K$ which is 1.6 times higher than thermal conductivity of pure copper.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.401-407
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• 2016

In this work, effect of zincate treatment of AZ91 Mg alloy on the following electrodeposition of copper was examined in a non-cyanide bath containing pyrophosphate ions in view of surface morphology and adhesion of the electrodeposited copper layer. Without zincate treatment, the electrodeposited copper layer showed very porous structure and poor adhesion. On the other hand, the copper layer electrodeposited on the zincate-treated surface showed dense structure and good adhesion. The dissolution rate of AZ91 Mg alloy after the zincate treatment appeared to decrease about 40 times in the copper pyrophosphate bath, as compared to that of the surface without zincate treatment. The porous morphology and poor adhesion of a copper layer on the AZ91 Mg alloy surface without zincate treatment were attributed to small number of nucleation sites of copper because of rapid dissolution of the magnesium substrate in the pyrophosphate bath. Based on the experimental results, it is concluded that the zincate treatment to form a conducting and protecting layer on the AZ91 Mg alloy surface is essential for successful electrodeposition of a copper layer on AZ91 Mg alloy with good adhesion and dense structure in the copper pyrophosphate bath.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2016.11a
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• pp.124.1-124.1
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• 2016

In this work, uniform thickness and good adhesion of electrodeposited copper layer were achieved on AZ91 Mg alloy in alkaline noncyanide copper solution containing pyrophosphate ion by employing appropriate zincate pretreatment. Without zincate pretreatment, the electrodeposited copper layer on AZ91 Mg alloy was porous and showed poor adhesion which was explained by small number of nucleation sites of copper due to rapid dissolution of the magnesium substrate in the pyrophosphate solution. The zincate pretreatment was found as one of the most important steps that can form a conducting layer to cover AZ91 surface which decreased the dissolution rate of AZ91 Mg alloy about 40 times in the copper pyrophosphate solution. Electrodeposited copper layer on AZ91 Mg alloy after an appropriate zincate pretreatment showed good adhesion and uniform thickness with bright surface appearance, independent of the deposition time but the surface roughness of the electrodeposited copper layer increased with increasing Cu deposition time.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.802-809
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• 2001

Electroplating is an attractive alternative deposition method for copper with the need for a conformal and conductive seed layer In addition, the Cu seed layer should be highly pure so as not to compromise the effective resistivity of the filled copper interconnect structure. This seed layer requires low electrical resistivity, low levels of impurities, smooth interface, good adhesion to the barrier metal and low thickness concurrent with coherence for ensuring void-free fill. The electrical conductivity of the surface plays an important role in formation of initial Cu nuclei, Cu nucleation is much easier on the substrate with higher electrical conductivities. It is also known that the nucleation processes of Cu are very sensitive to surface condition. In this study, copper seed layers deposited by magnetron sputtering onto a tantalum nitride barrier layer were used for electroplating copper in the forward pulsed mode. Prior to electroplating a copper film, the Cu seed layer was cleaned by plasma H$_2$ and $N_2$. In the plasma treatment exposure tome was varied from 1 to 20 min and plasma power from 20 to 140W. Effects of plasma pretreatment to Cu seed/Tantalum nitride (TaN)/borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) samples on electroplating of copper (Cu) films were investigated.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.191-196
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• 2018

The self-annealing which leads evolution of microstructure in copper electroplating layers at room temperature occurs after forming deposition layer. During the process, crystal orientation, size and sheet resistance of plating layer change. Lastly, it causes the change of physical and mechanical characteristics such as a tensile strength of plating layer. In this study, the variation of incorporated impurities, microstructure and sheet resistance of copper plating layer formed by electroplating are measured with and without inorganic additives during the self-annealing. In case of absence of inorganic additives, the copper layer presents strong total intensity of incorporated impurities. During the self-annealing, such width of reduction was significant. Moreover, microstructure and crystal size are increased while the tensile strength is decreased noticeably. On the other hand, in the presence of inorganic additives, there is no observable distinction in the copper plating layer. According to the observation on movements of the incorporated impurities in electrodeposition copper layer, within 12 hours the impurities are continuously shifted from inside of the plating layer to its surface after as-deposited electroplating. Within 24 hours, except for the small portion of surface layer, it is considered that most of the microstructure is transformed.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2000

The Pt/copper oxide/n-Si electrodes were fabricated by depositing copper oxide thin film of 500${\AA}$ and very thin Pt layer on the n-type (100) Si substrate. hotoelectrochemical properties and stability profiles of the electrodes were investigated as a function of deposition time of Pt layer. As the deposition time of Pt layer increased up to 10 seconds, the photocurrent and quantum efficiency were increased and then decreased with further depositing time. The better cell stability was observed for the electrode with longer deposition time. The improvements in above photoelectrochemical properties indicate that Pt layer acts as a catalyst layer at electrode/electrolyte interface as well as a protective layer. The decreasing tendency of the photocurrent and efficiency for the electrode with Pt layer deposited above 20 seconds was explained as an increases in probbility of electron-hole pair recombination and also the absorbing photon loss at electrode surface due to the excessive thickness of Pt layer. The results were confirmed by impedance spectroscopy, mutiple cycle voltammograms and microstructural analyses.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.238-244
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• 2016

Copper electrodeposition on AZ91 Mg alloy was studied in views of preferential deposition on ${\alpha}$- or ${\beta}$- phases and how to achieve uniform deposition over the entire surface on ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-phases in a cyanide solution. The inhomogeneous microstructure of AZ91 Mg alloy, particularly ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-phases, was found to result in non-uniform deposition of zincate layer, preferential deposition of zincate on ${\beta}$-phases, which leads to non-uniform growth of copper layer during the following electrodeposition process. The preferential depositions of zincate can be attributed to higher cathodic polarizations on the ${\beta}$-phases. Pin-hole defects in the copper electrodeposit were observed at the center of large size ${\beta}$-phase particles which is ascribed to gas bubbles formed at the ${\beta}$-phases. The activation of AZ91 Mg alloy in hydrofluoric acid solution was used to obtain uniform growth of zincate layer on both the ${\alpha}$- and ${\beta}$-phases. By choosing an optimum activation time, a uniform zincate layer was obtained on the AZ91 Mg alloy surface and thereby uniform growth of copper was obtained in a cyanide copper electroplating solution.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.137-152
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• 2023

Polarization behavior and corrosion inhibition of copper in acidic chloride solutions containing benzotriazole were studied. Pourbaix diagrams constructed for copper in NaCl solutions with different BTAH concentrations were used to understand the polarization behavior. Open circuit potential (OCP) depended not only on chloride concentration, but also on whether a CuBTA layer was formed on the copper surface. Only when the (pH, OCP) was located well in the CuBTA region of the Pourbaix diagram, a stable corrosion inhibiting CuBTA layer was formed, which was confirmed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and a long-term corrosion test. The OCP for the CuBTA layer decreased logarithmically with increasing [Cl^-] activity in the solution. A minimum BTAH concentration required to form a CuBTA layer for a given NaCl concentration and pH were determined from the Pourbaix diagram. It was found that 320 ppm BTAH solution could be used to form a corrosion-inhibiting CuBTA layer inside the corrosion pit in the sprinkler copper tube, successfully reducing water leakage rate of copper tubes. These experimental results could be used to estimate water chemistry inside a corrosion pit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.178-178
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• 2010

With the scaling down of ULSI(Ultra Large Scale Integration) circuit of CMOS(Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor)based electronic devices, the electronic devices become more faster and smaller size that are promising field of semiconductor market. However, very narrow line width has some disadvantages. For example, because of narrow line width, deposition of conformal and thin barrier is difficult. Besides, proportion of barrier width is large, thus resistance is high. Conventional PVD(Physical Vapor Deposition) thin films are not able to gain a good quality and conformal layer. Hence, in order to get over these side effects, deposition of thin layer used of ALD(Atomic Layer Deposition) is important factor. Furthermore, it is essential that copper atomic diffusion into dielectric layer such as silicon oxide and hafnium oxide. If copper line is not surrounded by diffusion barrier, it cause the leakage current and devices degradation. There are some possible methods for improving the these secondary effects. In this study, TaNx, is used of Tertiarybutylimido tris (ethylamethlamino) tantalum (TBITEMAT), was deposited on the 24nm sized trench silicon oxide/silicon bi-layer substrate with good step coverage and high quality film using plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD). And then copper was deposited on TaNx barrier using same deposition method. The thickness of TaNx was 4~5 nm. TaNx film was deposited the condition of under $300^{\circ}C$ and copper deposition temperature was under $120^{\circ}C$, and feeding time of TaNx and copper were 5 seconds and 5 seconds, relatively. Purge time of TaNx and copper films were 10 seconds and 6 seconds, relatively. XRD, TEM, AFM, I-V measurement(for testing leakage current and stability) were used to analyze this work. With this work, thin barrier layer(4~5nm) with deposited PEALD has good step coverage and good thermal stability. So the barrier properties of PEALD TaNx film are desirable for copper interconnection.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.61-67
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• 2023

In order to optimize the pulse electroforming copper process, a double hidden layer BP (Back Propagation) neural network is constructed. Through sample training, the mapping relationship between electroforming copper process conditions and target properties is accurately established, and the prediction of microhardness and tensile strength of the electroforming layer in the pulse electroforming copper process is realized. The predicted results are verified by electrodeposition copper test in copper pyrophosphate solution system with pulse power supply. The results show that the microhardness and tensile strength of copper layer predicted by "3-4-3-2" structure double hidden layer neural network are very close to the experimental values, and the relative error is less than 2.32%. In the parameter range, the microhardness of copper layer is between 100.3~205.6MPa and the tensile strength is between 112~485MPa.When the microhardness and tensile strength are optimal,the corresponding process conditions are as follows: current density is 2A-dm-2, pulse frequency is 2KHz and pulse duty cycle is 10%.