| AVS 61st International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Thin Film | Monday Sessions |
| Session TF+PS+SE-MoM |
| Session: | Advanced PVD Methods |
| Presenter: | Ronald Goeke, Sandia National Laboratories |
| Authors: | R.S. Goeke, Sandia National Laboratories N. Argibay, Sandia National Laboratories J.E. Mogonye, Sandia National Laboratories K.M. Hattar, Sandia National Laboratories S.V. Prasad, Sandia National Laboratories |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Gold coatings that are ideally suited for low electrical contact resistance (ECR) applications are mechanically soft and exhibit unacceptable amounts of adhesion and friction. To mitigate these problems gold for ECR applications is typically alloyed with Ni, Co or Fe which increases the film hardness and wear resistance. A key limitation of hard gold coatings is the propensity for the non-noble alloying metal species to diffuse to the surface and form non-conductive oxide films that can severely impact the electrical contact behavior. These traditional hard gold films, which are fabricated via electro-deposition, have been limited to electrochemical compatible materials. Using co-deposition of Au-ZnO by electron beam evaporation we have eliminated the electrochemical material limitations and synthesized a new class of hard gold thin films. The ceramic phase is used to strengthen the composite via grain refinement. The resulting nanocrystalline gold thin film can replace typical hard gold films and exhibits enhanced thermal stability as the refractory ceramic phase is kinetically limited and has no oxidative potential for migration to the surface. The synthesis, characterization, and thermal stability against grain sintering will be discussed.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.