Comparison of oxidation resistance of copper treated by beam-line ion implantation and plasma immersion ion implantation

Copper which has many favorable properties such as low cost, high thermal and electrical conductivity, as well as easy fabrication and joining is one of the main materials in lead frames, interconnects, and foils in flexible circuits. Furthermore, copper is one of the best antibacterial materials. However, unlike aluminum oxide or chromium oxide, the surface copper oxide layer does not render sufficient protection against oxidation. In this work, in order to improve the surface oxidation resistance of Cu, Al and N were introduced into copper by plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) and beam-line ion implantation (BII). The implantation fluences of Al and N were 2 × 1017 ions cm−2 and 5 × 1016 ions cm−2, respectively. The implanted and untreated copper samples were oxidized in air at 260 °C for 1 h. The X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results indicate that both implantation methods can enhance the oxidation resistance of copper but to different extent. PIII is superior to BII in enhancing the oxidation resistance of copper. The effects and possible mechanisms are discussed.