Thermal stability of microscale additively manufactured copper using pulsed electrodeposition

Micro/nanoscale 3D printing of metals is promising for printed electronics and sensors. It is important to evaluate how material properties of the microscale 3D-printed metals change at high temperature, though such studies are currently very limited. Here, we investigate morphological and mechanical property changes in copper interconnects 3D-printed by pulsed electrodeposition process. The results revealed significant surface damage and void formation in printed Cu after annealing at 450 degrees C. No significant surface damages or voids were observed for printed Cu annealed at 300 degrees C, however, their strength dropped similar to 40% from the strength of the as-deposited material (similar to 868 MPa). Such results are important to determine the operation temperature range for interconnects fabricated by microscale 3D printing. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.