Control of nano- and micro-crystalline copper electrodeposits

In this paper, electrodeposition of nano- and micro-crystalline copper films and thin-layers with direct and pulse periodic currents is effectively controlled. Electrical and physico-chemical characterizations of the copper films are realized, and the optimized electrodeposition parameters are so determined. Next, they are applied to micromolding. The attention is focused on microstructure, surface roughness, hardness, and on process parameters leading to major differences in final products. The obtained results show that the addition of a spike and a decrease in forward current can improve the throwing power in plating quality. Decrease in the grains dimension of the copper layers results in an increase of both the corrosion rate and the double layer capacitance but then charge transfer resistance decreases.