Role of ion-beam current and energy for nano-scale joining of copper nanowires: Experimental and theoretical study

Abstract

Copper nanowires (Cu NWs) are popular potential building blocks of various interconnecting components, microscale circuits, and nanoelectronics. Making interconnects at the nanoscale is still an open problem, and various methods have been explored during the past decades. While ion beam joining has been known for quite some time, the beam parameter-dependent processes leading to joining is yet to be understood in detail. A low-energy (5 keV) and broad argon ion beam is unable to induce joining among the Cu NW mesh, at the low ion currents (<400 nA). However, when the ion current was elevated to 1 µA at the same energy, a large-scale joining was observed. We developed a 3D finite volume model for heat transfer and Joule heating-based melting, which successfully explains the ion current-induced joining. When the current is increased to a significantly high level, the network fragments into smaller copper nanoparticles due to the heat produced. On the other hand, at higher argon ion energy (200 keV) a large-scale joining is observed even at small (<400 nA) beam current. A state-of-the-art, Monte Carlo-based TRI3DYN simulation predicted the role of recoils, redeposition, and ion beam mixing in such joining process at high ion energy, which is mostly due to elastic collisional consequences. Such ion current-induced nanowelded copper mesh-coated PET substrate shows good transmission in the optical range of wavelengths and a notable decrease in the sheet resistance is observed.