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M. Rosner, E. Neubauer, C. Eisenmenger-Sittner, H. Bangert, H. Hutter:
"Characterization of the interface of sputter deposited copper coatings on nitrogen plasma treated carbon substrates";
Poster: 12. Festkörperanalytiktagung 2003, Wien/Österreich; 22.09.2003 - 24.09.2003.

The adhesion of copper coatings on carbon substrates is very poor. This is a result of the lack of diffusion or reaction between both constituents. Since there is a technological interest to enhance the adhesion and to improve the interface between copper and carbon, a plasma treatment of the carbon substrate was employed in this study. For the modification of the carbon surface a nitrogen plasma was used. It was confirmed by pull-off tests, that by the introduction of the plasma pre-treatment the adhesion strength of the copper coating can be improved by a factor of more than 10. This was already achieved after a very short time of treatment (1 minute).
In order to get more information about the mechanisms which take place at the interface SIMS investigations were performed on samples which were treated for different times (between 1 and 60 minutes). These measurements confirmed that nitrogen is localised at the interface. With increasing pre-treatment time the amount of nitrogen, which is detected at the interface, is increased.
Beside the characterisation of as deposited samples, another focus was to study the diffusion mechanisms of nitrogen if the samples are heat treated at 500°C.