Abstract
In the present study, the microstructural and statistical properties of unimplanted in comparison to argon ion-implanted tantalum-based thin film surface structures are investigated for potential application in microelectronic thin film substrates. In the study, the argon ions were implanted at the energy of 30 keV and the doses of 1 × 1017, 3 × 1017, and 7 × 1017 (ion/cm2) at an ambient temperature. Two primary goals have been pursued in this study. First, by using atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis, the roughness of samples, before and after implantation, has been studied. The corrosion apparatus wear has been used to compare resistance against tantalum corrosion for all samples. The results show an increase in resistance against tantalum corrosion after the argon ion implantation process. After the corrosion test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was applied to study the sample morphology. The elemental composition of the samples was characterized by using energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Second, the statisticalcharacteristics of both unimplanted and implanted samples, using the monofractal analysis with correlation function and correlation length of samples, were studied. The results show, however, that all samples are correlated and that the variation of ion doses has a negligible impact on the values of correlation lengths. Moreover, the study of height distribution and higher-order moments show the deviation from Gaussian distribution. The calculations of the roughness exponent and fractal dimension indicates that the implanted samples are the self-affine fractal surfaces.
Highlights
A typical tantalum’s (Ta) core properties include a high melting point, strong electrical conductivity, high ductility, and corrosion resistance, making it suitable for sophisticated technical applications [1] such as its use in improving surface substrate performance
Monofractal analysis was applied to study the effect of argon ion implantation on the tantalum-based surfaces of samples
Different doses of argon ions considered for the implantation processes and the structural and statistical properties of samples have been studied
Summary
A typical tantalum’s (Ta) core properties include a high melting point, strong electrical conductivity, high ductility, and corrosion resistance, making it suitable for sophisticated technical applications [1] such as its use in improving surface substrate performance. It is possible to utilize either or all of the following elements: nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, and argon for ion implantations to tantalum [4] using the ion bombardment process, in which the ion energy, irradiation time, temperature, and density of current distress are the paramount parameters in determining the surface resilience [5,6]. Such a technique typically alters the morphological properties of the tantalum determining the surface resilience [5,6]. This forms substantial substrates that are suitable for electrical circuit components (such as capacitors, inductors, and resistors) subjected to extreme environments, for example the diffusion barriers in integrated with copper interconnects [8,9]
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