Effect of microstructure on thermal conductivity of Cu, Ag thin films

Thin film type materials are widely used in modern industries, such as semiconductor devices, functional superconductors, machining tools, and so on. The thermal properties of material in semiconductor are very important factors for stable operation because the heat generated during device operation may increase clock frequency. Even though thermal properties of thin films may play a major role in assessing reliability of parts, the measurement methods of thin film thermal properties are generally known to be complex to devise. In this study, a temperature distribution method was applied for the measurement of thermal conductivity of Cu and Ag thin film on borosilicate glass substrate. Cu and Ag thin films were deposited on borosilicate glass using thermal evaporation processes. To measure the thermal conductivity changes according to the microstructure of metallic thin film, the processing variables for the Cu and Ag thin film deposition were changed. To minimize the effect of film thickness, the film thickness was fixed to the thickness of approximately 500 nm throughout experiments. The thermal conductivities of thin films were measured to be much lower than those of bulk materials. Thin film with larger grain size showed higher thermal conductivity probably due to the lower number density of grain boundary. Weidman-Franz law could be applied to thin films produced in this study. Thermal conductivity was also estimated from the resistivity of thin film and Lorenz number of bulk material.