Effect of Cu Substrate Roughness and Sn Layer Thickness on Whisker Development from Sn Thin-Films

The effect of copper substrate roughness and tin layer thickness were investigated on whisker development in the case of Sn thin-films. Sn was vacuum-evaporated onto both unpolished and mechanically polished Cu substrates with 1 µm and 2 μm average layer thicknesses. The samples were stored in room conditions for 60 days. The considerable stress—developed by the rapid intermetallic layer formation—resulted in intensive whisker formation, even in some days after the layer deposition. The developed whiskers and the layer structure underneath them were investigated with both scanning electron microscopy and ion microscopy. The Sn thin-film deposited onto unpolished Cu substrate produced less but longer whiskers than that deposited onto polished Cu substrate. This phenomenon might be explained by the dependence of IML formation on the surface roughness of substrates. The formation of IML wedges is more likely on rougher Cu substrates than on polished ones. Furthermore, it was found that with the decrease of layer thickness, the development of nodule type whiskers increases due to the easier diffusion of other atoms into the whisker bodies.