Characterization of Stress in Electroplated Copper
Description
Current solar cells use a silver-printed front grid for electron conduction. Unfortunately, silver is expensive, leading to research into alternative materials. Copper is the most viable but poses grain growth problems and stress problems silver does not. This paper has characterised the effects of proprietary additives, thickness of the copper film layer, current density, and grain growth on stress. Per Stoney's equation, increased thickness leads to decreased thickness. However, if the current density is too high, the plated copper will become porous. Grain growth, quantified by the ratio of the intensity of the (1 1 1) plane and the (2 0 0) plane, increases over time, thus increasing the ratio which further equations to increased stress. Future work would be gathering more data to further investigate the relationship between additives and stress, current densities and stress, and grain growth over time and stress.
Date Created
The date the item was original created (prior to any relationship with the ASU Digital Repositories.)
2018-05
Agent
- Co-author: Simonet, Danny
- Co-author: Chang, Celine
- Thesis director: Bowden, Stuart
- Committee member: Karas, Joseph
- Contributor (ctb): Division of Teacher Preparation
- Contributor (ctb): Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program
- Contributor (ctb): Barrett, The Honors College