The influence of substrate on the adhesion behaviors of atomic layer deposited aluminum oxide films

✍ Scribed by J.N. Ding; X.F. Wang; N.Y. Yuan; C.L. Li; Y.Y. Zhu; B. Kan

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 669 KB
• Volume: 205
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0257-8972
• DOI: 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2010.10.052

✦ Synopsis

Aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) films were produced on n-type (001) Si, SiO 2 and polyimide (PI) substrates by atomic layer deposition method (ALD). The surface morphologies of the coatings were characterized by XRD and AFM, respectively. The adhesive properties of the deposits were investigated as a function of the nature of the substrate using the micro-scratch test. The Al 2 O 3 ALD films on SiO 2 , Si and PI substrates exhibited quite different scratch morphologies and failure modes. For about 100 nm thick Al 2 O 3 ALD films, the critical loads are 304.6 ± 8, 144.6 ± 8 and 41.6 ± 3 mN on SiO 2 , Si and PI substrates, respectively, while the corresponding calculated adhesion energies are 18.7, 3.8 and 0.12 J/m 2 . So the large difference in adhesion energy was discussed from the growth mechanisms of Al 2 O 3 on SiO 2 , Si and PI substrates.