Abstract
The effects of an electrolyte additive and twinning structure on the corrosion characteristics of electroplated Cu films have been investigated. Four different Cu films were individually deposited with and without benzotriazole (BTA) in the electrolyte using the direct-current (DC) and pulsed-current (PC) plating techniques. The Cu films plated with BTA additive showed improved corrosion resistance according to electrochemical polarization testing and postetching morphological inspection. Moreover, the PC-plated films that had dense nanoscale twin boundaries appeared to have higher chemical stability than the DC-plated ones. It is proposed that the presence of twin-modified grain boundary segments suppresses corrosion along the grain boundary network and improves the corrosion resistance of electroplated Cu films.