Thermal boundary conductance response to a change in Cr/Si interfacial properties

With continued size reduction in microelectronic devices, the boundary conductance between two materials becomes the main channel for thermal dissipation. While many efforts have been directed in studying this interfacial transport, these works have focused on the materials forming the boundary, not the boundary itself. This study focuses on the dependence of thermal boundary conductance on the properties of the region at the Cr/Si interface. The interfacial region of the Cr/Si samples is characterized with Auger electron spectroscopy depth profiling and the boundary conductance is measured with a pump-probe technique. Changes in interfacial properties are shown to significantly affect conductance. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.