We report an approach to fabricating (111)oriented and nanotwinned Cu (nt-Cu) by dc electroplating. A 200 nm thick Cu with (111) preferred orientation is required as a seed layer. Highly oriented Cu films with densely packed nanotwins can be grown to exceed 20 μm thick at high current and high stirring speeds. X-ray diffraction indicates that the intensity ratio of ( 111) to ( 220) is as high as 506, which is the highest among the reported electroplated Cu films. The spacing of twins ranges from 10 to 100 nm, which reveals a high hardness value of 2.23 GPa. The (111)-oriented nt-Cu will have many potential applications in interconnects and 3D IC packaging.

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Reduction in arsenic intake from water has a positive impact on the incidence of both lung and bladder cancer; however, while RR for lung cancer has dropped to below 2, RR for bladder cancer remained at around 5. The difference may be because (1) there are other risk factors beside the well-water intake or (2) bladder cancer may have longer latency period for excessive arsenic exposure than lung cancer. More studies are required to understand the causes behind the difference in RR for these two types of cancer.

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