An investigation into copper oxidation behavior

Copper electrodeposited on nickel and copper alloys substrates is easy to be oxidized, and the adhesion between the oxides and substrates can be so poor that delamination happens at these interfaces, which may lead to an overall failure to the electronic device. In this work, three different substrates were prepared by applying direct current; of all these substrates the amorphous nickel-phosphorous substrate was barely discussed in previous literature. The surface morphology, the orientation of electrodeposited copper film, the composition of oxide and the oxidation kinetics were investigated. The result showed that the nickel-phosphorous substrate electrodeposited with copper was superior to the other two specimens in oxidation resistance property. It is mainly attributed to the nickel-phosphorous substrate has an even surface and it owns a higher activation energy when oxided.