Evaluating electro-mechanical reliability using in-situ methods

In-situ Nano-/Micromechanics Summer Seminar Series 2020

  • Date: Aug 27, 2020
  • Time: 04:00 PM c.t. - 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Dr. Megan Cordill
  • Vice Director, Eric Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austria
  • Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH
  • Room: Virtual Lecture
  • Host: Dr. James Best
Evaluating electro-mechanical reliability using <i>in-situ</i> methods
Where: virtual on Zoom (link follows)

Electrical, mechanical and interfacial properties of thin metal films on compliant polymersubstrates are important to understand in order to design reliable flexible electronic devices.Thin films of Cu and Au on polyimide (PI) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrateswere examined for their use as interconnects in flexible electronic devices. Using in-situtensile straining with atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), andconfocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) mechanical and interfacial behavior can beexamined. AFM and CLSM can provide information about crack spacing and filmdelamination, while XRD experiments are utilized to determine the lattice strains andstresses present in the films. If these in-situ techniques are combined with in-situ 4-point-probe (4PP) resistance measurements, the influence of the mechanical damage on theelectrical properties can be correlated. This combination of multiple in-situ investigationsare particularly useful when studying the electro-mechanical behavior under cyclic loadingconditions where some materials can have an improvement of the electrical conductivityafter a few hundred cycles. Mechanisms behind these phenomena as well as methods tomeasure the adhesion of metal-polymer interfaces found in flexible electronic devices willbe discussed.

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