Effects of disorder state and interfacial layer on thermal transport in copper/diamond system
Abstract
The characterization of Cu/diamond interface thermal conductance (hc) along with an improved understanding of factors affecting it are becoming increasingly important, as Cu-diamond composites are being considered for electronic packaging applications. In this study, ∼90 nm thick Cu layers were deposited on synthetic and natural single crystal diamond substrates. In several specimens, a Ti-interface layer of thickness ≤3.5 nm was sputtered between the diamond substrate and the Cu top layer. The hc across Cu/diamond interfaces for specimens with and without a Ti-interface layer was determined using time-domain thermoreflectance. The hc is ∼2× higher for similar interfacial layers on synthetic versus natural diamond substrate. The nitrogen concentration of synthetic diamond substrate is four orders of magnitude lower than natural diamond. The difference in nitrogen concentration can lead to variations in disorder state, with a higher nitrogen content resulting in a higher level of disorder. This difference in disorder state potentially can explain the variations in hc. Furthermore, hc was observed to increase with an increase of Ti-interface layer thickness. This was attributed to an increased adhesion of Cu top layer with increasing Ti-interface layer thickness, as observed qualitatively in the current study.
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The advent of ultrafast laser sources with tunable wavelength over a wide range (such as a system based on an optical parametric oscillator) would be a great advantage for TDTR, as the probe wavelength could then be chosen to match a peak in the thermoreflectance of the metal transducer, thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio significantly.
“Meanwhile, the advent of ultrafast laser sources with tunable wavelength over a wide range (such as a system based on optical parametric oscillator 230, 231 ) would also be a great advantage for TDTR, as the probe wavelength could then be chosen to match a peak in the thermoreflectance of the metal transducer, thus increasing the signal-to-noise ratio significantly.”
From Tutorial: Time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) for thermal property characterization of bulk and thin film materials (2018) · cites this paper as [230]
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Influential
- Authors
- Sinha, V., Gengler, J. J., Muratore, C., & Spowart, J. E.
- Affiliations
- United States Air Force Research Laboratory (US)
- ORCID
- Muratore, C.
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Publisher
- AIP Publishing
- Published
- 2015-02-19
- Volume
- 117
- Issue
- 7
- ISSN
- 0021-8979 (ISSN-L)
- 1089-7550
- OpenAlex
- W2040930289
- Semantic Scholar
- 4281100458632e380fc6e5eea05b4a3474a942dc
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 2
- FWCI
- 0.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Physics (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Thermal properties of materials
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Diamond and Carbon-based Materials Research
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › 3D IC and TSV technologies
- Keywords
- thermal conductance, interfacial layer, titanium interlayer, synthetic diamond, natural diamond, nitrogen content, lattice disorder, time-domain thermoreflectance, electronic packaging, copper adhesion
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