Copper joints have replaced solder interconnects in integrated
circuits due to their great electrical properties and lower-temperature
processing. To isolate Cu from oxidizing during bonding processes,
a (111)-oriented nanotwinned Ag (NT-Ag) thin layer was electroless-deposited
on a (111)-oriented NT-Cu film. Such a method outperforms the sputtering
approach in terms of expenditure, environmental impact, and deposition
rate. The microstructures of the Ag films were then analyzed. Results
show that columnar NT-Ag grains epitaxially grew along the columnar
NT-Cu grains. Additionally, two types of joints (Cu–Ag and
Ag–Ag) were fabricated and characterized. We found that the
bonding strength of the Cu–Ag joints was higher than that of
the Ag–Ag joints. This could be attributed to the greater diffusion
rate of Ag atoms in Cu than the self-diffusion of Ag.
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