Electrodeposition film removal

There are a variety of materials that can be used as sacrificial cores. Inorganic sacrificial materials include Si02 and metals such as aluminum, " titanium, and nickel. Polymers such as PI, PMMA, PC, and photoresist have also been used as sacrificial materials. After deposition of the cover film, removal of the sacrificial layer can be achieved by dissolution, etching, or thermal degradation. These removal methods each have benefits and drawbacks selection of the optimal approach is specific to particular combinations of substrate, sacrificial layer, and cover film 73, 3 Recently Whitesides and coworkers " implemented a fabrication method using water-soluble sacrificial cores. Poly(acrylic acid) and dextran proved to be effective sacrificial layers that could be dissolved in water or aqueous NaCl, for making metallic microstructures by nickel electrodeposition. 

We have shown that such colloids are electroactive and can be electrode-posited.However, the electrodeposited films are not coherent and "redissolve" once the negative potential is removed. Optically active colloidal polyaniline nanocomposites of the type PAn.HCSA/polyacrylic acid have also recently been synthesized using the chemical oxidation route, by the oxidation of aniline with (NH4)2S20g in the presence of (+)- or (-)-HCSA as the dopant acid and polyacrylic acid as the steric stabilizer. 

Electrodeposition This method of paint application is basically a dipping process. The paint is water-based and is either an emulsion or a stabilised dispersion. The solids of the paint are usually very low and the viscosity lower than that used in conventional dipping. The workpiece is made one electrode, usually the cathode, in a d.c. circuit and the anode can be either the tank itself or suitably sized electrodes sited to give optimum coating conditions. The current is applied for a few minutes and after withdrawal and draining the article is rinsed with de-ionised water to remove the thin layer of dipped paint. The deposited film is firmly adherent and contains a minimum of water and can be stoved without any flash-off period. This process is used for metal fabrications, notably car bodies. Complete coverage of inaccessible areas can be achieved and the corrosion resistance of the coating is excellent (Fig. 14.1). 

Fig. 10 Schematic representation of the nanoreplication processes from block copolymers, a Growth of high-density nanowires from a nanoporous block copolymer thin film. An asymmetric PS-fc-PMMA diblock copolymer was aligned to form vertical PMMA cylinders under an electric field. After removal of the PMMA minor component, a nanoporous film is formed. By electrodeposition, an array of nanowires can be replicated in the porous template (adapted from [43]). b Hexagonally packed array of aluminum caps generated from rod-coil microporous structures. Deposition of aluminum was achieved on the photooxidized area of the rod-coil honeycomb structure (Taken from [35])...

A second, equally powerful means to prepare such materials relies on traditional inorganic polymerization tools, most notably sol-gel polymerization.24 25 A number of excellent reviews have appeared on this subject as well.5,12,17 In sol-gel processing, the functional monomer [i.e., an organoalkoxysilane such as 3-aminopropyltrimethox-ysilane (APTMS)] is combined with the cross-linking agent [i.e., a tetrafunctional alkoxysilane such as tetramethoxysilane (TMOS) or tetraethoxysilane (TEOS)], a catalyst (such as hydrochloric acid or ammonia), and the template molecule. The resultant sol can be left to gel to form a monolith, which can then be dried, sieved, and extensively washed to remove the template. Alternatively, the sol can be spin coated, dip coated, or electrodeposited on a surface to yield a thin film, which can be subsequently washed with a solvent to remove the template and yield the imprinted cavities. 

CMP removal rate (RR) of electrodeposited Cu film was found to increase by 35% over time after plating. The RR increase was attributed to Cu film hardness reduction of 43% and grain growth fix)m the initial O.lum at as-deposit to lum at the final stage at room temperature. The removal rate increase will translate to variations in manufacturing environment and are therefore unacceptable. It was found that annealing at -100C for 5 minutes in inert gas will stabilize Cu films and provide consistent CMP removal rate. 

Currently, work is being conducted on an in situ electrodeposition sampling device 20, 21, 22), It consists of a submersible, self-contained potentiostat, power supply, reference electrode, and working electrode. Metals are deposited on the 1-in. diameter, wax-impregnated, pyrolytic graphite working electrode 21, 22, 23) which can then be removed from the sampler at the surface and stored. The metal film can be either... 

D and 3-D metal nanowire thin films[263] with tunable 3-10 nm wire diameters have been obtained by electrodeposition into mesoporous silica thin-film templates, resulting in nanowire arrays that reflect the pore structure of the template. Removal of silica is achieved via annealing followed by etching to leave mechanically strong freestanding metal nanowire films. 

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