Elastic-plastic analyses on the residual stresses and curvature of the film/substrate bilayer system

During thermal cycling, the residual stresses are often generated in the film/substrate bilayer due to the material mismatch between the substrate and the film. If the thickness of the film is relatively high, the thermal residual stresses in it may be of different signs. When the film is subjected to elastic-plastic deformation, two plastic zones with different thicknesses may be generated in the film at a significantly high temperature difference. In this paper, a theoretical model which reflects the complete history of thermal residual stresses and curvatures in the elastoplastic film/substrate bilayer system is developed. Solutions are derived to estimate the residual stresses and curvature in the film as functions of temperature difference. The case of Al/Si system is used to illustrate the implementation of this model. Results show that the critical temperature difference at which the second plastic zone near the film surface is generated near the Al film surface is dependent on the film thickness. The strain hardening of the film has an obvious influence on the magnitude of residual stresses within the film at high temperature difference.     

GaSb基PECVD法制备SiO2薄膜的应力研究

为了实现在GaSb衬底上获得低应力的SiO₂薄膜,研究了等离子体增强化学气相沉积法（PECVD）在晶格失配较大的GaSb衬底上沉积SiO₂薄膜的应力情况。通过改变薄膜沉积时的工艺条件,如反应温度、射频功率、反应压强、气体流量比,并基于曲率法模型,对镀膜前后的曲率半径进行了实验测量,利用Stoney公式计算相关应力值并绘制应力变化曲线。详细讨论了PECVD工艺条件的改变对SiO₂薄膜应力所产生的影响。同时通过在Si衬底上沉积SiO₂薄膜,对比分析了导致薄膜应力产生的因素及变化过程。实验结果表明,在沉积温度为300℃、射频功率为20 W、腔体压强为90 Pa、气体流量比SiH₄/N₂O为125/70 cm³·min^-1的工艺参数下,PECVD法在GaSb衬底上沉积的SiO₂薄膜应力相对较小。     

Nano-indentation Test and Numerical Evaluation of Cu–Cr Interface Structure in Micro/Nano Manufacturing

Interface design is an important topic in micro/nano electronic manufacturing. Interfaces of dissimilar materials in micro/nano electronic manufacturing are prone to crack initiations, leading to delaminations. The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic investigation to design or evaluate a bilayer film structure between Cu and Cr in micro/nano electronic manufacturing. In this paper, the Cu/Cr bilayer film prototype was deposited on the quartz glass by using RF magnetron sputtering. The elastic modulus and the hardness of the bilayer film prototype can be tested by using a nano-indenter. The test results show that the elastic modulus and the hardness of the bilayer film prototype are different at the difference maximum depth, h _max. The elastic modulus and the hardness of the Cu/Cr interface are influenced by the nanometer indentation size effect and each single film. The elastic modulus of the bilayer film shows nonlinear characteristics which include increase at first and decrease on second stage. The change trend of the hardness also shows nonlinear characteristics which include a fast steady decline at first and a slow nonlinear decline on second stage. These results show that there are scale domino effects in micro/nano electronic manufacturing. Based on the test results, the mechanical properties of the interface are not the simple average of each composition film. There is very great difference in the interface. In the meantime, the finite element method is used to simulate the plastic property of the interface. The comparison between the simulation and the test shows that the modeling method is a valid investigating method to analyze mechanical properties for nano-interface structure. It builds a basis for a progressive study of the mechanical properties of a Cu/Cr interface structure.     

双层纳米磁电薄膜模型及分析

以层状磁电复合材料弹性力学模型为基础,建立了自由状态下双层纳米磁电薄膜的弹性力学模型,并以此为基础简单介绍了推导其磁电电压系数表达式的方法.计算了CoFe₂Ｏ₄/Pb（Zr_0．52Ti_0．48）Ｏ₃双层纳米复合薄膜的磁电电压系数理论值,分析结果表明基片对薄膜存在强烈的夹持效应,而且基片对压电与磁致伸缩两相材料间最佳体积比有一定的影响. 关键词： 磁电理论 磁电薄膜 铁电材料 磁致伸缩     

Comparison of ZnO thin films grown on a polycrystalline 3C-SiC buffer layer by RF magnetron sputtering and a sol-gel method

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on a polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layer using RF magnetron sputtering and a sol-gel method. The post-deposition annealing was performed on ZnO thin films prepared using both methods. The formation of ZnO piezoelectric thin films with less residual stress was due to a close lattice mismatch of the ZnO and SiC layers as obtained by the sputtering method. Nanocrystalline, porous ZnO film prepared using the sol-gel method showed strong ultraviolet UV emission at a wavelength of 380 nm. The 3C-SiC buffer layer improved the optical and piezoelectric properties of the ZnO film produced by the two deposition methods. Moreover, the different structures of the ZnO films on the 3C-SiC intermediate layer caused by the different deposition techniques were also considered and discussed.     

Experimental and numerical approach on interfacial properties of W/Al bilayer films for electronic devices manufacturing

The aim of this article is to provide a systematic method for performing experimental tests and theoretical evaluations on interfacial adhesion properties of the W/Al bilayer thin films interface. Samples W/Al bilayer thin films assembly is deposited on the quartz glass by using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Based on the analysis of the experimental indentation data, the elastic modulus and hardness of the sample are investigated. The test results show that both of the values are easily influenced by the indentation depth. At the meantime, a finite element model is built to simulate the interface mechanical properties. The analysis shows that stress is mainly centralized close to the indenter and the maximum stress occurs in the lower layer Al film, not in the upper W film. The comparison between the experiment and the simulation shows the validity of the test and the modeling of each other to a certain extent. The investigation builds a basis for future work such as the fabrication of W/Al bilayer thin films for micro/nano manufacturing.     

Elastic properties of spherically anisotropic piezoelectric composites

Effective elastic properties of spherically anisotropic piezoelectric composites, whose spherically anisotropic piezo-electric inclusions are embedded in an infinite non-piezoelectric matrix, are theoretically investigated. Analytical solutions for the elastic displacements and the electric potentials under a uniform external strain are derived exactly. Taking into account of the coupling effects of elasticity, permittivity and piezoelectricity, the formula is derived for estimating the effective elastic properties based on the average field theory in the dilute limit. An elastic response mechanism is revealed, in which the effective elastic properties increase as inclusion piezoelectric properties increase and inclusion dielectric properties decrease. Moreover, a piezoelectric response mechanism, of which the effective piezoelectric response vanishes due to the symmetry of spherically anisotropic composite, is also disclosed.     

Two-step sputtered ZnO piezoelectric films for film bulk acoustic resonators

This study investigates high-performance ZnO piezoelectric films used for thin film bulk acoustic resonators (TFBAR). The ZnO piezoelectric film was deposited on a Pt/Ti electrode using an RF magnetron sputter by a two-step method at room temperature. The Pt/Ti electrode was deposited by a DC sputtering system, on which, ZnO piezoelectric films were deposited in one step and in two steps to minimize roughness in the first step and produce the preferred orientation in the second. Both field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and atom force microscopy (AFM) revealed that ZnO piezoelectric film deposited by two-step sputtering exhibited favorable characteristics, such as a rigidly precise surface structure with surface roughness of 7.37 nm, even better than in one-step sputtering. Examining the ZnO thin film by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed a much higher c-axis-preferring orientation than in one-step sputtering. The reflection coefficient of the resonator device was measured using an HP8720 network analyzer. The frequency response of the FBAR device exhibited a return loss of -25 dB at a resonant frequency of 2212 MHz with a high coupling coefficient of 6.7%. PACS 68.55.Jk; 43.35.Ns; 81.15.-z     

Test investigation on interfacial characteristics of Cr/Al nanofilms structure

The objective of this paper is to provide a systematic test for fabrication or evaluation of a bilayer film structure between Cr and Al in micro/nanoelectronic manufacturing. The Cr/Al bilayer film is fabricated by using the magnetron sputtering. To understand the basic mechanical properties of the Cr/Al bilayer films, the elastic modulus and the hardness of the sample are investigated by using a nanoindenter test. The test can show the changing trend of the Cr/Al sample structure. To investigate the integrating characteristics of the sample in progress, the effect of the thermal cycling loading and no-thermal cycling loading on the integrating force of the Cr/Al samples is tested by using nanoscratch. The interfacial binding force in the films can be obtained for understanding the integrating characteristics. It builds a basis for future work on progress investigation of physical property of Cr/Al bilayer film structure.     

Metallic thin film growth on vicinal Cu substrates

In this study we have investigated the heteroepitaxial growth of nickel and silver on vicinal copper substrates. Nickel was deposited onto a (211) substrate. The low lattice mismatch between copper and nickel of 2.5% enables epitaxial bidimensional growth in the substrate's orientation, where the strain can be accommodated in the overlaying film. On the contrary, copper and silver have a much larger mismatch of about 13% which usually cannot be accommodated in the film. In general, Ag is known to form alloys or to induce faceting on a stepped Cu surfaces. Here, silver was deposited onto a Cu(311) facet covered with a monatomic layer of NaCl. For the first time we show that Ag can be grown as ultrathin film in the substrates's orientation on a stepped surface using NaCl as a novel surfactant material.     

Exchange coupling in CoO–Co bilayer

In this work, exchange bias and coercivity enhancement in ferromagnet (FM)–antiferromagnet (AFM) bilayer have been investigated. CoO film (50 nm) was deposited by sputtering with a relatively high oxygen partial pressure. The deposited films were subsequently annealed at varied temperature up to 973 K in the air atmosphere. The CoO film shows a disordered structure in the as-deposited state and an increase of crystallinity after annealing characterized by XRD and Raman spectra. A 40-nm Co film was deposited on the as-deposited CoO and annealed films. The Co–CoO bilayer shows a large exchange bias up to 1600 Oe and relatively high coercivity up to 3200 Oe (H_C−) at 5 K, which is much larger than that of crystalline Co–CoO bilayer films without any treatment. The spin glass behavior combined with increasing crystallinity, surface roughness of CoO after annealing may be attributed to the large exchange bias and high coercivity.     

Atomistic study of deposition process of Al thin film on Cu substrate

In this paper we report molecular dynamics based atomistic simulations of deposition process of Al atoms onto Cu substrate and following nanoindentation process on that nanostructured material. Effects of incident energy on the morphology of deposited thin film and mechanical property of this nanostructured material are emphasized. The results reveal that the morphology of growing film is layer-by-layer-like at incident energy of 0.1-10 eV. The epitaxy mode of film growth is observed at incident energy below 1 eV, but film-mixing mode commences when incident energy increase to 10 eV accompanying with increased disorder of film structure, which improves quality of deposited thin film. Following indentation studies indicate deposited thin films pose lower stiffness than single crystal Al due to considerable amount of defects existed in them, but Cu substrate is strengthened by the interface generated from lattice mismatch between deposited Al thin film and Cu substrate.     

Immunoassays Based on Surface-Enhanced Fluorescence using Gap-Plasmon-Tunable Ag Bilayer Nanoparticle Films

A novel gap-plasmon-tunable Ag bilayer nanoparticle film for immunoassays is demonstrated. Different from a traditional Ag monolayer nanoparticle film, a desired number of polyelectrolyte (PEL) layers are deposited on the nanoparticles before the self-assembly of a second Ag nanoparticle layer. Interestingly, by controlling the number of the PEL interlayers, the gap plasmon between the two Ag nanoparticle layers can be tuned across the visible spectral range. The ability of the presented Ag bilayer nanoparticle films in fluorescence enhancement has been examined experimentally. A maximal enhancement of around 15.4 fold was achieved when 7 layers of polyelectrolyte were used. When this optimal Ag bilayer nanoparticle film was applied to fluorescence immunoassay, a performance with approximately 3.3-fold enhancement was obtained compared with that performed on a traditional glass substrate. The experimental results suggest that the presented gap-plasmon tunable Ag bilayer nanoparticle films have great potential in fluorescence-based immunoassays. The method of the bilayer-film construction presented here also provides new insights into the rational design of the plasmonic substrates.     

Three-dimensional analyses of photo-modulated reflectivity for transparent film/opaque substrate structures

For a structure consisting of a transparent film deposited on an opaque substrate radiated by a modulated focused laser beam, a 3-D model is established to calculate the temperature distributions. Then based on 3-D thermoelastic displacements and dielectric constants depended on the temperature of the bilayer structure, the photo-modulated reflectivity of the structure is calculated by using FEM method. As an example, the modulated reflectance variations with the modulation frequency of the optical beam and the thermal conductivity of the film in ZnO/Si bilayer structures are also obtained.     

Nonlinear bending of molecular films by polarized light

A theory of photoinduced directed bending of non-crystalline molecular films is presented. Our approach is based on elastic deformation of the film due to interaction between molecules ordered through polarized light irradiation. The shape of illuminated film is obtained in the frame of the nonlinear elasticity theory. It is shown that the shape and the curvature of the film depend on the polarization and intensity of the light. The curvature of an irradiated film is a non-monotonic function of the extinction coefficient.     

异质结构的应变和应力分布模型研究

基于组合杆的平衡条件，分别建立了晶格失配、热失配以及由两者共同导致的异质结构应变 和应力分布模型，并获得了异质结构的晶格失配应变、热失配应变、弯曲应变以及曲率半径 的分析解. 同时，运用所建的模型，计算了HgCdTe/CdZnTe异质结构的应变和应力分布.结果 表明：应力最大值均在界面处，而中性面仅是材料厚度和弹性参数的函数，与晶格失配、晶 格弛豫、热失配等参数无关，且该异质结构的曲率半径是衬底厚度的函数，随衬底厚度的减 小而减小，而要保证HgCdTe/CdZnTe器件在液氮温度下不发生断裂，衬底的厚度必须大于临界值. 关键词： 异质结构 应变分布模型 应力分布模型 晶格失配     

确定薄膜厚度和光学常数的一种新方法

借助于不同的色散公式,运用改进的单纯形法拟合分光光度计测得的透过率光谱曲线,来获得薄膜的光学常数和厚度。用科契公式分别对电子束蒸发的TiO2和反应磁控溅射的Si3N4,以及用德鲁特公式对电子束蒸发制备的ITO薄膜进行了测试,结果表明测得的光学常数和厚度,与已知的光学常数以及台阶仪测得的结果具有很好的一致性。这种方法不仅简便,而且不需要输入任何初始值,具有全局优化的能力,对厚度较薄的薄膜也可行。采用不同的色散公式可以获得各种不同薄膜的光学常数和厚度,这在光学薄膜、微电子和微光机电系统中具有实际的应用价值。     

在Si衬底上用分子束外延低温生长Ge薄膜

本文报道了室温下淀积的薄层Ge在Si衬底表面上通过加热形成结晶的Ge岛,然后在此“带结构”的衬底表面上用分子束外延(MBE)方法生长Ge薄膜的反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED),俄歇电子能谱(AES)研究结果。X射线双晶衍射的测试结果表明,衬底表面的Ge岛有助于释放外延层的失配应力,提高外延层的晶体质量。 关键词：     

Simulation of electromechanical coupling coefficient by modified modal frequency spectrum method including the electrode effect

An approximate formula has been developed to determine the electromechanical coupling coefficient of the piezoelectric film in a four-layer composite resonator, which includes two electrodes. In this formula, the coupling coefficient can be calculated from the distribution of the effective coupling coefficients, k2eff, which are given by the modal frequency spectrum of the composite resonator. The feasibility of this method has been demonstrated with a ZnO/SiO2 composite resonator for different electrode thickness. The effect of mechanical propagation loss in both piezoelectric layer and substrate has also been studied.     

Analysis of the substrate effects of strain-hardening thin films on silicon under nanoindentation

Mechanical properties of thin films on substrates can be evaluated directly through nanoindentation. For a comprehensive study, thin films should be characterized via Young’s modulus, yield stress and strain-hardening exponent at constant temperature. In this paper, we evaluate these effects of thin films on silicon substrate through finite element analysis. Thin films, from soft to hard relative to the silicon substrate, are investigated in three categories: soft films on hard substrates, soft to hard films on no elastic mismatch substrates, and hard films on soft substrates. In addition to examining the load-displacement curve, the normalized hardness versus normalized indentation depth is checked as well to characterize its substrate effect. We found that the intrinsic film hardness can be acquired with indentation depths of less than 12% and 20% of their film thickness for soft films on hard substrates and for soft to hard films on no elastic mismatch substrates, respectively. Nevertheless, nanoindentation of hard films on soft substrates cannot determine the intrinsic film hardness due to the fact that a soft substrate cannot support a hard film. By examining the von Mises stresses, we discovered a significant bending phenomenon in the hard film on the soft substrate. PACS 61.43.Bn; 62.20.-x; 68.03.Hj; 68.05.Cf; 68.08.De