Application of the Composite Hardness Models in the Analysis of Mechanical Characteristics of Electrolytically Deposited Copper Coatings: The Effect of the Type of Substrate

Abstract

The mechanical characteristics of electrochemically deposited copper coatings have been examined by application of two hardness composite models: the Chicot-Lesage (C-L) and the Cheng-Gao (C-G) models. The 10, 20, 40 and 60 µm thick fine-grained Cu coatings were electrodeposited on the brass by the regime of pulsating current (PC) at an average current density of 50 mA cm−2, and were characterized by scanning electron (SEM), atomic force (AFM) and optical (OM) microscopes. By application of the C-L model we determined a limiting relative indentation depth (RID) value that separates the area of the coating hardness from that with a strong effect of the substrate on the measured composite hardness. The coating hardness values in the 0.9418–1.1399 GPa range, obtained by the C-G model, confirmed the assumption that the Cu coatings on the brass belongs to the “soft film on hard substrate” composite hardness system. The obtained stress exponents in the 4.35–7.69 range at an applied load of 0.49 N indicated that the dominant creep mechanism is the dislocation creep and the dislocation climb. The obtained mechanical characteristics were compared with those recently obtained on the Si(111) substrate, and the effects of substrate characteristics such as hardness and roughness on the mechanical characteristics of the electrodeposited Cu coatings were discussed and explained.