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In this work, an evaluation method was presented to systematically characterize the electrical and thermal properties of a metallic thin-film line. A series of current-stressing experiments were carried out on the Ag thin-film lines with different geometrical properties on substrates. In combination with the corresponding electrothermal analyses, t...
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Citations
Ag film lines have attracted considerable attention recently as a substitute for the next-generation of transparent conducting electrodes, and as such, ensuring the reliability of Ag film, i.e., their resistance to corrosion, is an important issue. Corrosion of these metallic film changes their electrical properties, leading to the malfunction of electrical devices. In this study, the authors examined the corrosion of 400 nm thick Ag film lines kept in atmospheric conditions for more than three years. The rate of corrosion over this period was determined by examining the changes in their electrical resistance, which was obtained from the potential drop measurements. It was confirmed that the rate of corrosion remained approximately constant for about one and a half years and then started to decreased monotonically with time. These results can be used to determine the reliability of Ag film lines.
Cuprous oxide (Cu2O) is widely used in thin-film transistors as a p-type semiconductor material, and Cu2O nanowire studies have been actively conducted to enhance device performance and facilitate further scaling down. As scaling down progresses, the device line failure arising from electromigration becomes a constant challenge; however, the characteristics of Cu2O under high-density current have not yet been investigated. Hence, this study performed current loading tests on Cu2O specimens. Dumbbell shaped specimens were fabricated through Cu sputtering, photolithography, and thermal oxidation processes. The main component of the specimen was nanocrystalline Cu2O according to the x-ray diffraction measurement. The relatively high-potential drop specimen often failed at the middle region of the straight section during 1.0 MA/cm² current loading. The middle-region failure was thought to be the result of the line degradation caused by Joule heating. In contrast, the relatively low-potential drop specimen often failed at the anode-side region because the cross-section area increased at the cathode and middle regions and decreased at the anode regions during current loading. In the usual electromigration phenomenon, atomic transport occurs from the cathode to the anode side; therefore, a lack of atoms can occur on the cathode side. Anode-side failures occurred likely because of the change of nanocrystalline Cu2O to coarse grained material at the middle region from Joule heating during current loading and the difference in atom transportability between the middle region and both end regions of the straight section of the specimen.
In this paper, the authors report on using Joule heating to increase the etch rate of focused ion beam (FIB) for etching Ag films. FIB is widely used as a tool for processing micro/nanomaterials. In this process, material atoms are expelled when the ion beam is irradiated on the material surface. On the other hand, Joule heating has been used for the structural modification of small-scale materials. Because in the FIB etching, the atoms are expected to be easily expelled by decreasing the density of grain boundaries of a metal, the FIB etch rate of the metal might be enhanced by structural modification with Joule heating. In this research, an Ag film was subjected to current-stressing, and FIB etching was carried out. It was confirmed that grains in the film grew due to Joule heating and that the FIB etch rate for Ag increased. The authors showed that the FIB etch rate for Ag could be enhanced by Joule heating. The results of this study will help in developing metal etch processes for micro/nanomaterials.
