Microstructure and texture investigation of chemically deposited copper coatings

AbstractThis work reports electron microscopy and X-ray investigations of the structure and texture of thin copper coatings that were chemically deposited (chemCu) from trilonic electolytes. The relationships between the structure and texture of chemCu, and the structure and texture of electrochemically deposited copper coatings have been established. It has been determined that chemically deposited copper coatings have very fine crystal structure, with areas of coherent scattering that are orders of magnitude smaller than their counterparts in matt copper coatings (mattCu) that are electrochemically deposited from simple (non-complex) sulphuric-acid electrolyte. Additionally, in chemCu, the axis of preferred orientation is in the direction, while in mattCu it is in the direction. Alternatively, bright copper coatings (brightCu) (electrodeposited from similar sulphuric acid electrolyte but with brightener additives), which are also characterised with extremely fine crystal structure have mixed...