Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-956mj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-15T09:19:14.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Plastic properties of thin films on substrates as measured by submicron indentation hardness and substrate curvature techniques

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

M.F. Doerner ,
D.S. Gardner  and
W.D. Nix
M.F. Doerner
Affiliation:
IBM General Products Division, San Jose, California 95193 and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
D.S. Gardner
Affiliation:
Integrated Circuits Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
W.D. Nix
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
Get access

Abstract

Substrate curvature and submicron indentation measurements have been used recently to study plastic deformation in thin films on substrates. In the present work both of these techniques have been employed to study the strength of aluminum and tungsten thin films on silicon substrates. In the case of aluminum films on silicon substrates, the film strength is found to increase with decreasing thickness. Grain size variations with film thickness do not account for the variations in strength. Wafer curvature measurements give strengths higher than those predicted from hardness measurements suggesting the substrate plays a role in strengthening the film. The observed strengthening effect with decreased thickness may be due to image forces on dislocations in the film due to the elastically stiffer silicon substrate. For sputtered tungsten films, where the substrate is less stiff than the film, the film strength decreases with decreasing film thickness.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 1 , Issue 6 , December 1986 , pp. 845 - 851
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Sinha, A. K., Levinstein, H. J., and Smith, T. E., J. Appl. Phys. 49, 2423 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2Sinha, A. K. and Sheng, T. T., Thin Solid Films 48, 117 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3Townsend, P. H. and Vanderplas, H. A., Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 47, 121 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4Hershkovitz, M., Blech, I. A., and Komem, Y., Thin Solid Films 130, 87 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5Hieber, H. and Simon, T., Proceedings of the International Reliability Physics Symposium, IEEE Electron Devices and Reliability Societies, 1986, p. 253.Google Scholar
6Hu, C. K., Gupta, D. and P. S. Ho, Proceedings of the 2nd International IEEE VLSI Multilevel Interconnect Conference, 1985, p. 187.Google Scholar
7Pollock, H. M., Maugis, D. and Barquins, M. in Microindentation Techniques in Materials Science and Engineering, edited by Blau, P. J. and Lawn, B. R. (American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia, PA, 1985), p. 47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8Dirks, A. G., Broek, J. J. Van den, and Wierenga, P. E., J. Appl. Phys. 55, 4248 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9Stone, D., Fontaine, W. La, Ruoff, S., and Li, C. Y., Mater. Res. Soc. Proc. 72, 43 (1986).Google Scholar
10Doerner, M. F. and Nix, W. D., J. Mater. Res. 1, 601 (1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11Pethica, J., Hutchings, R. and Oliver, W. C., Philos. Mag A. 48, 593 (1983).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12Mclnerney, E. J. and Flinn, P. A., International Reliability Physics Symposium, IEEE Electron Devices and Reliability Societies, 1982, p. 264.Google Scholar
13Lebouvier, D., Gilormini, P. and Felder, E., J. Phys. D 18, 199 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14Bravman, J. C. (private communication).Google Scholar
15Thornton, J. A., Tabock, J. and Hoffman, D. W., Thin Solid Films 64, 111 (1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16Tabor, D., The Hardness of Metals (Clarendon, Oxford, 1951).Google Scholar
17Simes, T. R., Mellor, S. G., and Hills, D. A., J. Strain Anal. 19, 135 (1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18Hansen, N., Acta Metall. 25, 863 (1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19Armstrong, R. W. in Advances in Materials Research, edited by Herman, H. (Interscience, New York, 1970), Vol. 4.Google Scholar
20Ronay, M. and Aliotta, C. F., Philos. Mag. A 42, 161 (1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21Chaudhari, P., J. Appl. Phys. 45, 4339 (1974).CrossRefGoogle Scholar