• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.86-95
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• 2001

Mechanical properties of electroplated gold microstructures were determined from the micromachined beam structures. Cantilever and bridge beam structures of different length were fabricated by electroplating-surface micromachining technique, which is specially designed to realize an anchor structure close to an ideal fixed-boundary condition. Fabricated beams were electrostatically excited and their resonance frequencies were measured by optical system composed of laser displacement meter with dynamic signal analyzer. Young's modulus and mean residual stress were calculated from the measured frequencies of microbeams. In addtion, stress gradient was measured using deformation of released cantilever beam structure.

• International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.72-77
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• 2002

In this paper, a simple method to measure the residual stress in microstructure is presented. In order to find the residual stress in micro-machined beam, the first natural frequency of the beam that has the residual stress inside is analyzed using Rayleigh's energy method. Micro gold electroplated structure is fabricated by surface micro-machining process including electroplating. The made structure is an approximate shape of clamped-clamped beam and its 1 st natural frequency is measured by resonance method. For the better estimation of the residual stress, an equivalent length of micro-fabricated beam to ideal beam is calculated by FEM. The residual stress was estimated from the equivalent length and the measured natural frequency. It was found that a tensile stress was residue in the micro beam structure.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.195-200
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• 2000

In order to find a residual stress in the micro-machined beam, first natural frequency of the beam that has the residual stress inside is analyzed using the Rayleigh's energy method. Micro gold electroplated structure is fabricated by surface micro-machining process. The made structure is clamped-clamped beam and its 1st natural frequency is measured by resonance method. For the better estimation of the residual stress, an equivalent length of micro-machined beam to ideal beam is calculated by FEM. The residual stress is estimated from the equivalent length and the measured natural frequency.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.235-241
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• 2013

In this study, the effects of alloying elements and thermal aging on the contact resistance of electroplated gold alloy layers were investigated by surface analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The contact resistance of Au-Ag alloy was lower than that of Au-Ni or Au-Co alloy after thermal aging. The XPS results show that nickel and oxygen present as nickel oxides such as NiO and $Ni_2O_3$ on the surface of gold layers after thermal aging. The increase in the contact resistance after thermal aging is attributable to the nickel oxide layer formed on the surface of the gold layers. The content of nickel diffused from the underlayer during the thermal aging was high in the order of Au-Co, Au-Ni and Au-Ag alloy because the area of grain boundary was large in the order of Au-Ag, Au-Ni and Au-Co alloy.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.309-317
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• 1992

Evaluation of electroplated gold has been carried out to obtain the data base for electrical, mechanical and environmental properties for telecommunication component applications. Gold plating was performed to a various thickness of $0.1\mu\textrm{m}$ to 1.$25\mu\textrm{m}$ after Ni plating of $3\mu\textrm{m}$ on C52100 bronze. Electrical properties were evaluated by measuring contact resistance using 4-wire method under static contact and dynamic contact during wear. Reciprocating wear test was performed to study the wear behavior as well as failure of gold contacts. Environmental characteristics were evaluated by using salt spray testing and SO2 test. Hardness of soft gold film was measured to be 53KHN under 5g load. Friction coefficient was initially obtained to be 0.15 and 0.25 under 100g and 200g loads respectively, and then raised up to 0.8 with increasing reciprocating wear cycles. Static contact resistance was 2 to 3m$\Omega$ regardless of gold film thickness while drastic changes of contact resistance were occured upon stripping of the gold film during wear. The lifetime of contact wear showing stable contact resistance increased up to 6 times for $1\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness compared to that of$ 0.1\mu\textrm{m}$ thickness under 100g load. All gold plating appeared to be stable under salt atmosphere while only the gold plating over 1$\mu\textrm{m}$ was stable under SO2 atmosphere.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.58-64
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• 2006

In this study, we describe a low-temperature wafer-level thermocompression bonding using electroplated gold seal line and bonding pads by electroplating method for RF-MEMS devices. Silicon wafers, electroplated with gold (Au), were completely bonded at $320^{\circ}C$ for 30 min at a pressure of 2.5 MPa. The through-hole interconnection between the packaged devices and external terminal did not need metal filling process and was made by gold films deposited on the sidewall of the throughhole. This process was low-cost and short in duration. Helium leak rate, which is measured to evaluate the reliability of bonded wafers, was $2.7{\pm}0.614{\times}10^{-10}Pam^{3}/s$. The insertion loss of the CPW packaged was $-0.069{\sim}-0.085\;dB$. The difference of the insertion loss between the unpackaged and packaged CPW was less than -0.03. These values show very good RF characteristics of the packaging. Therefore, gold thermocompression bonding can be applied to high quality hermetic wafer level packaging of RF-MEMS devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.253.1-253.1
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• 2007

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.10-14
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• 2006

We have designed and fabricated coil structures by gold electroplating technique. The thickness, width, and length are $7{\mu}m,\;20{\mu}m$, and 1.6m, respectively. With vibrating a magnet on the surface of a fabricated electroplated coil, the micro power generator produce an alternating voltage. We have changed the vibrational frequency from 0.5Hz to 8Hz. The generated voltage was 106mV at 3Hz and 198mV at 6Hz. We have rectified and stepped up the input voltage using a quadrupler circuit. After using the step up circuit, the measured voltage was 81mV at 3Hz and 235mV at 6Hz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2004.08a
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• pp.146-146
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• 2004

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.30A no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 1993

A via-hole process for reproducible and reliable GaAs MMIC fabrication is described. The via-hole etching process consists of two step dry etching. During the first etching step a BC $I_{3}$/C $I_{2}$/Ar gas mixure is used to achieve high etch rate and small lateral etching. In the second etching step. CC $L_{2}$ $F_{2}$ gas is used to achieve selective etching of the GaAs substrate with respect to the front side metal layer. Via holes are formed from the backside of a 100$\mu$m thick GaAs substrate that has been evaporated initially with 500.angs. thick chromium and subsequently a 2000.angs. thick gold layer. The fabricated via holes are electroplated with gold (~20$\mu$m thick) to form via connections. The results show that established via-hole process is satisfactory for GaAs MMIC fabrication.