Adhesion promotion of Cu on C by Cr intermediate layers investigated by the SIMS method

Copper-carbon composites are candidate materials for heat sinks for high speed/high-performance electronic components. They combine high thermal conductivity with low density and a tailorable coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Because of the low wettability of carbon by copper, a thin layer of chromium can be deposited to promote both the adhesion and the thermal contact of copper with the carbon fibers. Therefore, in a first step layers of Cr and Cu were deposited by magnetron sputtering on plane vitreous carbon substrates (Sigradur G), which serve as a model for carbon fibers. From pull-off-adhesion measurements an interlayer thickness of Cr in the range of 2-10 nm was found to provide the optimal adhesion for 1 micro m thick copper overlayers. To model the later serial fabrication of the composite that involves a hot pressing step following the deposition, the C/Cr/Cu samples were heat treated at 800 degrees C under vacuum for 1 h. Adhesion on the heat-treated samples was superior in comparison to the untreated ones. To obtain information about the adhesion mechanism secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) investigations were done on the depth distribution of the main elements copper, chromium, and carbon. Two samples, one as deposited and one subjected to heat treatment after deposition, were compared in this investigation. We found that heat treatment mainly modifies the distribution of Cr in the C/Cr/Cu system.