Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Following crack path selection in multifilm structures with weak and strong interfaces by in situ 4-point-bending

  • Articles
  • Published:
Journal of Materials Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this study, the interfacial adhesion of Cu and TiN on an annealed borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) in a multilayer material stack was investigated. The two material systems, Cu/BPSG and TiN/BPSG, are representatives for weak and strong interfaces, respectively. A weak and a strong interface was chosen to identify possible differences in the fracture path selection for the multilayer material systems. To investigate this, in situ 4-point-bending experiments were performed under an optical microscope and in a scanning electron microscope. Complementary ex situ 4-point-bending experiments were carried out on the identical material systems. These tests revealed that for the two analyzed systems there is a large discrepancy in the success rate of failure along the interface of interest, which is a prerequisite for determining the corresponding interface energy release rate. This phenomenon can be understood by using theoretical findings of earlier studies reported in the literature, which are in agreement with the experimental outcome of the in situ 4-point-bending measurements presented here.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

FIG. 1
FIG. 2
FIG. 3
FIG. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. S. Varchenya, A. Simanovskis, and S. Stolyarova: Adhesion of thin metallic films to non-metallic substrates. Thin Solid Films 164, 147 (1988).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. A. Kinbara, S. Baba, A. Kikuchi, T. Kajiwara, and K. Watanabe: Adhesion measurement of thin films on glass substrates. Thin Solid Films 171, 93 (1989).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. A.A. Volinsky, N.R. Moody, and W.W. Gerberich: Interfacial toughness measurements for thin films on substrates. Acta Mater. 50, 441 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. D.B. Marshall and A.G. Evans: Measurement of adherence of residually stressed thin films by indentation. I. Mechanics of interface delamination. J. Appl. Phys. 56, 2632 (1984).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. M.D. Kriese, W.W. Gerberich, and N.R. Moody: Quantitative adhesion measures of multilayer films: Part I. Indentation mechanics. J. Mater. Res. 14, 3007 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. M.D. Kriese, W.W. Gerberich, and N.R. Moody: Quantitative adhesion measures of multilayer films: Part II. Indentation of W/Cu, W/W, Cr/W. J. Mater. Res. 14, 3019 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. M.J. Cordill, N.R. Moody, and D.F. Bahr: Quantifying improvements in adhesion of platinum films on brittle substrates. J. Mater. Res. 19, 1818 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. M.J. Cordill, N.R. Moody, and D.F. Bahr: The effects of plasticity on adhesion of hard films on ductile interlayers. Acta Mater. 53, 2555 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. E. Barthel, O. Kerjan, P. Nael, and N. Nadaud: Asymmetric silver to oxide adhesion in multilayers deposited on glass by sputtering. Thin Solid Films 473, 272 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. H. Hirakata, Y. Takahashi, D. Truong, and T. Kitamura: Role of plasticity on interface crack initiation from a free edge and propagation in a nano-component. Int. J. Fract. 145, 261 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. K. Matoy, T. Detzel, M. Müller, C. Motz, and G. Dehm: Interface fracture properties of thin films studied by using the micro-cantilever deflection technique. Surf. Coat. Technol. 204, 878 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. J. Schaufler, C. Schmid, K. Durst, and M. Göken: Determination of the interfacial strength and fracture toughness of a-C:H coatings by in situ microcantilever bending. Thin Solid Films 522, 480 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. P.G. Charalambides, J. Lund, A.G. Evans, and R.M. McMeeking: Test specimen for determining the fracture resistance of bimaterial interfaces. J. Appl. Mech. 56, 77 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Q. Ma, H. Fujimoto, P. Flinn, V. Jain, F. Adibi-Rizi, F. Moghadam, and R.H. Dauskardt: Quantitative measurement of interface fracture. In Materials Reliability in Microelectronics V. Materials Research Society Symposia Proceedings, San Francisco, CA, Vol. 391, W.F. Filter, K. Gadepally, A.L. Greer, A.S. Oates, and R. Rosenberg eds. (Cambridge University Press, 1995); p. 91.

  15. R.H. Dauskardt, M. Lane, Q. Ma, and N. Krishna: Adhesion and debonding of multi-layer thin film structures. Eng. Fract. Mech. 61, 141 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Q. Ma, J. Bumgarner, H. Fujimoto, M. Lane, and R.H. Dauskardt: Adhesion measurement of interfaces in multilayer interconnect structures. In Materials Reliability in Microelectronics VII. Materials Research Society Symposia Proceedings, San Francisco, CA, Vol. 473, J.J. Clement, R.R. Keller, K.S. Krisch, J.D. Sanchez Jr., and Z. Suo eds.; 1997; p. 3.

  17. M. Lane, R.H. Dauskardt, N. Krishna, and I. Hashim: Adhesion and reliability of copper interconnects with Ta and TaN barrier layers. J. Mater. Res. 15, 203 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Z. Cui, G. Dixit, L. Xia, A. Demos, B.H. Kim, D. Witty, H. M’Saad, and R.H. Dauskardt: Benchmarking four point bend adhesion testing: The effect of test parameters on adhesion energy. In Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology. AIP Conference Proceedings, Santa Clara, CA, Vol. 788, D.G. Seiler, A.C. Diebold, R. McDonald, C.R. Ayre, R.P. Khosla, S. Zollner, and E.M. Secula eds.; 2005; p. 507.

  19. R. Shaviv, S. Roham, and P. Woytowitz: Optimizing the precision of the four-point bend test for the measurement of thin film adhesion. Microelectron. Eng. 82, 99 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. R.P. Birringer, P.J. Chidester, and R.H. Dauskardt: High yield four-point bend thin film adhesion testing techniques. Eng. Fract. Mech. 78, 2390 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. M.D. Kriese, N.R. Moody, and W.W. Gerberich: Effects of annealing and interlayers on the adhesion energy of copper thin films to SiO2/Si substrates. Acta Mater. 46, 6623 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. A. Hohenwarter and R. Pippan: A comprehensive study on the damage tolerance of ultrafine-grained copper. Mater. Sci. Eng., A 540, 89 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. S. Kamiya, H. Nagasawa, K. Yamanobe, and M. Saka: A comparative study of the mechanical strength of chemical vapor-deposited diamond and physical vapor-deposited hard coatings. Thin Solid Films 473, 123 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. S. Massl, W. Thomma, J. Keckes, and R. Pippan: Investigation of fracture properties of magnetron-sputtered TiN films by means of a FIB-based cantilever bending technique. Acta Mater. 57, 1768 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. M-Y. He and J.W. Hutchinson: Crack deflection at an interface between dissimilar elastic materials. Int. J. Solids Struct. 25, 1053 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. M-Y. He and J.W. Hutchinson: Kinking of a crack out of an interface. J. Appl. Mech. 56, 270 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Z. Suo and J.W. Hutchinson: Interface crack between two elastic layers. Int. J. Fract. 43, 1 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. L. Banks-Sills and D. Ashkenazi: A note on fracture criteria for interface fracture. Int. J. Fract. 103, 177 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Z. Suo and J.W. Hutchinson: Sandwich test specimens for measuring interface crack toughness. Mater. Sci. Eng., A 107, 135 (1989).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. B. Völker, W. Heinz, K. Matoy, R. Roth, J.M. Batke, T. Schöberl, C. Scheu, and G. Dehm: Interface fracture and chemistry of a tungsten-based metallization on borophosphosilicate glass. Philos. Mag.(2014, in press). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2014.913108.

  31. J.J. Wortman and R.A. Evans: Young’s modulus, Shear modulus, and Poisson’s ratio in silicon and germanium. J. Appl. Phys. 36, 153 (1965).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. H.T. Tran, M.H. Shirangi, X. Pang, and A.A. Volinsky: Temperature, moisture and mode-mixity effects on copper leadframe/EMC interfacial fracture toughness. Int. J. Fract. 185, 115 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. C.H. Hsueh, W.H. Tuan, and W.C.J. Wei: Analyses of steady-state interface fracture of elastic multilayered beams under four-point bending. Scr. Mater. 60, 721 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

B.V. would like to thank R. Pippan for the discussions and T. Detzel and J. Fugger of Infineon Technologies Austria AG for their support. Part of this work was jointly funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG, Project No. 831163) and the Carinthian Economic Promotion Fund (KWF, contract KWF-1521

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. KAI - Kompetenzzentrum Automobil- und Industrieelektronik GmbH, 9524, Villach, Austria

    Bernhard Völker & Walther Heinz

  2. Department Materials Physics, Montanuniversität Leoben, 8700, Leoben, Austria

    Bernhard Völker

  3. Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, 40237, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Sriram Venkatesan & Gerhard Dehm

  4. Infineon Technologies AG, 9500, Villach, Austria

    Kurt Matoy & Roman Roth

  5. Infineon Technologies AG, 93049, Regensburg, Germany

    Jörg-Martin Batke

  6. Erich Schmid Institute of Materials Science, Austrian Academy of Sciences, 8700, Leoben, Austria

    Megan J. Cordill

Authors
  1. Bernhard Völker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sriram Venkatesan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Walther Heinz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Kurt Matoy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Roman Roth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Jörg-Martin Batke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Megan J. Cordill
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Gerhard Dehm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerhard Dehm.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Völker, B., Venkatesan, S., Heinz, W. et al. Following crack path selection in multifilm structures with weak and strong interfaces by in situ 4-point-bending. Journal of Materials Research 30, 1090–1097 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.88

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2015.88

Search

Navigation